Private equity investor snaps up £140m recruitment firm
Leeds private equity investors Endless have confirmed the acquisition of the £140m-turnover recruitment division of Capita.
CER Staffing Solutions has been acquired from Capita plc, including its subsidiaries in the form of Affinity Workforce, specialising in education, health and social care.
The acquisition price is undisclosed, but reports earlier this week from Sky News and the Telegraph valued it at around £25m.
Established over 20 years ago, Affinity Workforce operates from a truly national footprint of 19 different locations across the UK. The business comprises the Monarch, CER and Quality Teachers,4FRONT, Team24, and Medicare First.
Endless will support management, led by CEO Nicola McQueen, in achieving their goals for Affinity Workforce. This includes providing strategic, commercial, operational and financial assistance, particularly as it transitions to a standalone business and looks to grow.
This is Endless’ latest investment from its £525 million Fund IV and the transaction follows what has been a busy start to 2017 after the acquisitions of Jones the Bootmaker and Arran Aromatics and the successful exit of Karro Food Group.
Nicola McQueen, CEO of Affinity Workforce, said: “Today is an incredibly exciting day for our history book as we go into partnership with Endless and embark on a journey to make Affinity Workforce the most admired and trusted recruitment partner – enabling our clients to service the public with the very best in Education, Health and Social Care services. Within each of our markets there is a real need to provide enhanced value and with our rich heritage in recruitment partnering, coupled with our specialist sector experience, we have the winning formula.”
Francesco Santinon, Partner at Endless, said: “We are delighted to be able to have acquired this business from Capita.
“We are extremely excited to be involved in one of the UK’s largest staffing businesses, including the second largest education and teaching supply business in the UK. Endless is fully committed to utilising our capital, resource and business transformation experience in supporting CEO Nicola McQueen and her highly capable management team achieve their plans.”
The Endless deal team was led by Francesco Santinon, Ed Ransome and David Isaacs with support from James Woolley and Mark Stevens on financial due diligence. Endless were also advised by Reed Smith (James Cross, Charles Jurd and Caspar Fox) and PWC Tax (Mike Seaton and Thomas Klouda). Capita were advised by Grant Thornton (Keely Woodley, Daniel Demir and Bilal Khan) and DWF (Paul Pignatelli, Tom Maxwell and Colin Miller).
