Tushingham Sails owns the world-leading inflatable Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) brand Red Paddle Co. Red Paddle is the world’s only dedicated inflatable SUP brand, sold in 60 countries. 

The Deal

We provided £4 million as a combined debt and equity package to allow the business to maintain its leading position in an attractive and growing niche in the watersports sector.

The Plan

The global SUP market is in a significant growth phase. The funding will allow the business to invest in working capital to fund further international growth.

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Master Removers Group provides specialist and extremely well-regarded logistics, storage and removals services to international businesses and domestic consumers alike. Its iconic Aussie Man & Van and Anthony Ward Thomas brands are well known across London, with MRG counting Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom and the Archbishop of Canterbury as clients.

The Deal

We invested £7.2 million in MRG in December 2014 to support an equity release for the shareholders of the business. Our funding was provided as a combined debt and equity package. Management was attracted to us as high levels of rollover and strong fixed asset cover enabled us to construct a deal that saw them retain a majority stake in the business post completion. Extremely strong cash generation at MRG enabled the entirety of our loan stock to be repaid in January 2016 and dividend payments to commence just 13 months after the original buyout.

The Plan

MRG is run by a high-quality management team with strong operational capabilities and a proven track record in making astute, add-on acquisitions, the latter of which was a key component of the strategy adopted for the group post completion. Since our investment, MRG has made five acquisitions to accelerate its expansion outside London and into the West of England. Taken together, the business has increased utilisation of its warehouse, vehicle and labour resources in turn increasing its turnover, profitability and cash generation substantially since the investment was made. 

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One of the UK’s leading wholesale communications infrastructure providers, Entanet uses third party networks to deliver a wide range of connectivity and telecommunication products and services to small business customers. 

The Deal

We originally backed CEO Elsa Chen and her management team in the MBO of Entanet in February 2014, committing a total of £9.5m and introducing experienced Chairman Richard Atkins to the Board. In 2017, we realised our investment in a £29m sale to CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings plc. 

The Impact

Since the original investment, the Entanet management team  worked with us to refine their business model and introduce new products and services. As a result, annual revenues grew from £27m to £36m at the time of the sale. The deal with CityFibre delivered an initial return of 2.5x for Mobeus-advised funds, with potential for this to increase to in excess of 2.7x over the next two years. Initial IRR to shareholders was 38.7%, potentially increasing to 40.9%.

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Award-winning The Gro Company invented the Grobag Baby Sleep Bag, approved by The Lullaby Trust. Having sold over three million Grobags worldwide, Gro is known as the ‘official baby sleep bag’ brand and has expanded its product range across nursery care and sleep solutions.

The Deal

We backed the MBO of Gro from the original founders in March 2013, investing £7.1m as a Combined Debt and Equity package. We worked alongside the management team to professionalise and expand the business, introducing Chairman Jules Hydleman with a strong record in consumer brands. In 2018, the business was sold to Mayborn Group, the owner of the tommee tippee brand, for an enterprise value of £22m.

The Impact

Following the MBO, Gro launched a range of new products and expanded internationally. It now sells in more than 25 countries. The exit represented a total return of over 2x money and an IRR of over 20%.

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Automated Systems Group is a leading provider of printing and copying solutions to SMEs and the education sector. ASL was founded in 1991 and manages over 5,000 customers from its nine offices across East Anglia, the Midlands, London and the South of England.

The Deal

Mobeus backed ASL in 2010, as a buy-and-build platform in a large, mature but fragmented industry. Supported by Mobeus, ASL’s management team pursued an M&A programme, as well as achieving organic growth, to consolidate its market position. It has completed ten acquisitions, most recently of ICA in February 2018 and of Geerings in November 2018. In June 2019, we sold our investment in a secondary buyout backed by Primary Capital Partners.

The Impact

ASL more than trebled EBITDA over the investment period and now employs 158 people (up from 60 in 2010). The sale to Primary represents a 2.2x money multiple on the Mobeus total investment of £9.7 million. 

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MachineWorks is the leading developer of simulation and verification toolkit technology used in Computer Aided Manufacturing.

Original Deal

We originally invested £1.9m in the management buyout of Lightwork Design and Machineworks, a group of two companies known together as VSI Limited, in 2006. At the time, MachineWorks had a dominant market position supplying CAM software vendors and was starting to penetrate the machine tool market.

Impact

MachineWorks was consistently profitable and cash generative, leading to repayment of all of the MBO loans by 2011. The business made significant inroads with large machine tool customers enabling it to be seen as a strategic partner by these businesses.

Sale

In April 2014, the company was sold to a Europe-based trade buyer for an undisclosed sum.

Mobeus Returns

The investment returned nearly £7m to the Mobeus advised VCTs, generating a return of 4.1x cost.

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Media Business Insight is a leading UK publishing and events company. The company owns a unique digitally-led portfolio of leading multichannel, subscription-based brands offering content and insight to key decision-makers and creatives in the media industries.

The Deal

Mobeus acquired MBI in 2015 from a corporate owner, Top Right Group (Ascential plc), which was rationalising its portfolio through a number of non-core disposals. We delivered a solution against tight timescales laid down by the vendor, providing a combined debt and equity package of £11.7 million for a majority stake.

The Realisation

In 2022, MBI was sold to GlobalData, an AIM-listed data and analytics company generating a money multiple of 2.3x. This asset was held by the Mobeus VCTs which were sold to Gresham House in September 2021.

The Impact

Mobeus invested in the business to enable it to transition from a traditional publisher to a digitally-led data, insights and intelligence company with a market-leading portfolio of brands.

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Mobeus Equity Partners invested £6m as a combined debt and equity package alongside asset finance to fund the secondary management buyout of Motorclean Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of cleaning and valeting services to the motor industry. The transaction provided a full exit to LDC which had invested in the original management buyout of Motorclean in 2005, whilst enabling the management team to increase its equity stake and continue to run the business.

Acquisition Finance

Mobeus provided a further combined debt and equity package of £3.2m to support the acquisition of Forward Valeting Services, combining two of the leading providers of cleaning and valeting services to the UK motor trade.

The deal provided scale and the ability to service national contracts for the largest UK dealership groups. Motorclean achieved enhanced coverage and buying power, and was able to leverage its market-leading head office infrastructure and systems.

Management Solution

To strengthen the team, Mobeus introduced Kevin Finn as an investing Chairman. Finn is a serial automotive entrepreneur and on the board of the Institute of the Motor Industry.

Transacting Expertise

Mobeus originated the transaction by making a direct approach to LDC. An off market deal was structured which met the aspirations of the existing investor as well as the continuing management team. Securing LDC’s confidence that the deal would be delivered, notably by providing a combined debt and equity funding package, was key to opening up the opportunity.

Mobeus then led the acquisition negotiations with Forward’s vendors on behalf of the business and worked closely with Motorclean’s management to ensure that the transaction progressed smoothly through due diligence and that the integration was carefully planned.

The Impact

In 2018, having successfully achieved our initial growth target, we determined the time was now right to realise the investment back to management, which has been incrementally building its ownership position since the original LDC buyout 12 years ago. The transaction was funded with substantial support from HSBC UK.

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