ECI rules the roost for PE awards
PRIVATE equity firm ECI Partners ruled the roost at last night’s Rainmaker Awards, winning in both its team and deal categories.
The firm’s exit from Wilmslow-based health and safety and employment compliance business Citation for £185m in February, gave a 5.4x multiple.
That deal won in the online voting for the Private Equity Exit of the Year category, Sponsored by Axon Moore.
It was up against the acquisition of Bifold by Rotork for £125m, providing an exit for LDC and the secondary buyout of Wealth at Work by Equistone for £50m, an exit by Palatine Private Equity.
On winning the award Steve Tudge, managing partner at ECI Partners said: “Investing in business great. It’s fantastic to find lots of interesting businesses, but there’s nothing which can replay the joy of a successful exit, so Citation was definitely a highlight.”
Tudge added: “Citation’s a great story about what private equity can do. The business when we bought it from the founders was an interesting business with an interesting market position, but actually had a lot of flaws.
“The management team we’ve worked with at Citation has created a fantastic business with demonstrable growth, but also, in the current market, resilience as well.
“So we were able to demonstrate to the buyers of the business just how secure the future was and that attracted a lot of value. 5.4x return is great. The reason we all work in this area is to get returns like that.”
It’s been a busy year for ECI – which is why the firm’s peers also voted for it to win the Private Equity team category.
Its £50m investment for a majority stake in Macclesfield pet food maker MPM Products in March was also shortlisted in the M&A Deal of the Year category.
Last week it was reported that ECI was looking to exit Knowsley-based Clarke Energy.
ECI’s Tim Raffle said on stage: “It’s been in our portfolio for a while and is a business that is doing really well. We are looking at our strategic options at the moment.”
Other nominees in the Private Equity Team of the Year category were: The Business Growth Fund, Inflexion, LDC, Palatine Private Equity and Seneca.
Raffle, who was instrumental in establishing ECI’s Northern office in 1997 will soon be retiring after 26 years with the firm. He noted the progress made in the northern deals market during that time.
He said: “If we’d had a dinner like this 26 years ago it would have been a lot smaller (fewer people). It astonishes me that we just continue to grow. It’s been great.”
Asked on stage if he had plans for what he might do after leaving ECI, he told TheBusinessDesk editor Joanne Birtwistle: “Wait and see, I’m not retiring let’s put it that way.”
