ChipsAway International Ltd (United Kingdom) - Nov 2007

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01 November 2007

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Barclays Ventures has realised its investment in Edwin Investments Ltd generating a 3x return and an IRR of 33%. Edwin Investments which trades as ChipsAway Group, an automotive services franchise group, has been acquired by franchise service provider MyHome in a deal worth up to £20m. The incumbent management team have exited their investment, but will remain in place to lead the company in the next stage of its development. Bedford-based ChipsAway is a mobile service delivered to customers’ homes and offices, repairing scratches, chips and other minor damage to car paintwork using proprietary technology. Over the course of Barclays Ventures involvement with the business, the driver for growth was the recruitment of more franchisees on the ChipsAway side and the introduction of a secondary franchise model – PCC – the car valeting business which had a lower initial franchisee fee to get started. The ChipsAway Group also includes Professional Car Cleaning, a mobile valeting service. ChipsAway has active franchisees in 13 countries including the UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Austria, South Africa and Russia. Emma Morris led the exit for Barclays Ventures.

Previous funding

Barclays Ventures originally backed ChipsAway in a £6.3m buy-in management buy-out in September 2003 (6 October 2003, page 21). Barclays Ventures invested £2.3m for a ratcheted minority stake alongside a debt package provided by HSBC.

Advisers

Equity - DLA Piper UK LLP , (Legal)Equity - Livingstone Partners, Eleanor Clow, Gordon Blair (Legal)