UK - Gresham sells Busy Bees for £71m

Gresham Private Equity has agreed to sell childcare provider Busy Bees to Australian company ABC Learning Centres Ltd in a deal worth £71m. The exit generated a 3.6x return on Gresham's investment. Gresham first backed Busy Bees in February 2000 with a debt and equity funding package totalling a potential £50m. Of this £27m had been drawn down by the time of exit following the several acquisitions including those of Kindercare and Copperbeach Group. This exit follows a succession of exits for Gresham including most recently, the flotation of Individual Restaurant Company on AIM from which it recouped 2.3x and the sale of recruitment company Blue Group International which generated a return of 2.6x.