Investment specialist achieves multi-million return on exit from delivery firm
Investment specialist Next Wave Partners has successfully exited its investment in Warrington-based The Delivery Group (TDG) following a management buyout.
Next Wave followed its recently announced sale of national e-commerce network and specialist mail services company TDG’s international e-commerce logistics business to FedEx Corporation for £92m with an exit of its majority shareholding in the firm via an MBO.
London-based Next Wave will retain a significant minority shareholding in TDG following its exit.
Next Wave first invested £2.7m for a minority stake in TDG in 2011 at an enterprise value of £7m, which it grew during its investment to more than £116m, a 16x increase.
TDG grew from £32m revenues and £700,000 EBITDA at the time of Next Wave’s initial investment to more than £250m revenues and £12m EBITDA.
Next Wave was advised by Craig Scott and Mike Murphy of Hill Dickinson’s Liverpool office, and Coolin Desai and Jeremy Bate of PwC.
The management buy out team was advised by Jamie Austin and Alex Mackay of BDO and lawyers Stephens Scown.
Next Wave’s managing partner, Jonathan Brod, said: “We are delighted to have achieved a strong exit for our fund from our investment in The Delivery Group.
“Since our initial investment in 2011, the company was completely transformed, growing over 16 times in enterprise value and growing EBITDA 20 times.
“This investment demonstrates the success of Next Wave’s transformational growth strategy: hands-on involvement to drive ambitious growth plans and supporting our ambitious management teams in building substantial, high growth and high-performance companies.
“Next Wave builds value throughout the economic cycle for our investors and our management teams.”
Paul Carvell, chair of TDG, said: “We are delighted to have completed the management buy-out of The Delivery Group and have thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Next Wave to achieve our successes to date.
“We look forward to the next phase of TDG’s growth as we continue to work with our tremendous customer base and loyal staff to offer even more services as we expand into new markets.”
