Funds managed by Cabot Square Capital, the specialist financial services private equity investor, have successfully completed the sale of The Compello Group to the Hoist Finance Group of Sweden, a debt restructuring partner to international banks.
The Compello Group is a leading debt purchasing and management company. Compello Group buys non-performing consumer debt from banks and other lenders and then works with the borrower to help them establish a payment plan or other solution for their outstanding loans.
Cabot Square has previously owned and successfully exited debt purchasing and solution services businesses Cabot Financial and The Lowell Group.
The Compello Group was founded by the Cabot Square fund CS Capital Partners III. The exit generated a return of 2x invested capital and an 18 per cent internal rate of return.
The sale of Compello follows a string of recent sales by Cabot Square Capital of:
KRS, a retirement solutions provider (5.0x)
Centric, an SME invoice finance business (2.3x)
The Medicx Group, a provider of medical office properties (18.5x)
Equitix, an investor in infrastructure assets (12.3x)
Signature Senior Lifestyle, a leading provider of senior residential care (2.0x), and Medicx Pharmacy
John Van Deventer (pictured) of Cabot Square Capital, says: “The successful expansion and sale of Compello underlines that we are one of the few private equity firms with an appetite to set up and work with management teams to build new, fast growth financial services businesses.
“While we add the capital needed to help financial services companies accelerate their growth and profitability, we look to do a lot more with the management of investee companies. For example, putting in place the technology that is now such a driver of success in financial services.”
Last month Cabot Square confirmed it had reached an initial close of its fifth fund, CS Capital Partners V, of circa GBP275 million. This fund will continue to invest in Cabot Square Capital’s target sectors of financial services, infrastructure, and property.
