Reed & Mackay has been acquired by MBO Team / ECI / Livingbridge

Arrowpoint Advisory has advised the shareholders of Reed & Mackay Holdings Limited on the sale of the business in a secondary buy-out backed by ECI Partners. Existing private equity investor Livingbridge has also rolled part of its sale proceeds into Reed & Mackay.

The investment from ECI and Livingbridge will allow Reed & Mackay, the leading provider of strategic business travel management services, to continue to grow the high quality and value added services that it delivers to clients.

London-based Reed & Mackay was established in 1962 as a travel agent providing both business and leisure travel services. In 1988, it re-branded as a corporate travel management company specialising in providing high quality services to a client base predominantly based in the City of London.

Livingbridge originally invested 4.87m on behalf of the Baronsmead VCTs in 2005 in return for a significant minority stake, when Chief Executive Richard Boardman was seeking an investment partner to help him and the team take the business to the next level of growth. This transaction enables the Baronsmead VCTs to exit in full, and sees Livingbridge investing alongside ECI, thereby maintaining an investment and involvement in this high growth company.

The exit yields a cash multiple of 4.8x and an IRR of more than 35% to the Baronsmead VCTs.

Pete Clarke, Investment Director at Livingbridge, added: “Reed & Mackay has proven to be a great investment in a high quality business, with a first rate team throughout the organisation. The business has grown significantly since our investment in 2005. As the company has grown we have worked hard to ensure that the family business we invested in has become a more professional business but nonetheless retain those family values which are at the heart of service excellence.”

“We are delighted to have completed this transaction, which has generated a fantastic return for Livingbridge VCT clients. We had a significant amount of interest in the business but have found a great partner for Reed & Mackay in ECI,” said James Lever, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory.

Alex John, Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, added: “Reed & Mackay has a strongly differentiated offering based on unrivalled staff expertise and market-leading technology. As a leader in its marketplace we were always confident that Reed & Mackay would generate strong interest from institutional investors. This was borne out in the process which was highly competitive, and demonstrates the level of appetite that exists in the private equity community for the highest quality assets.”

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