ECI Partners (ECI) and Livingbridge have sold their investment in Reed & Mackay to Inflexion generating a multiple of 3.4x cost to investors.
Reed & Mackay is a premium corporate travel management company delivering a personalised service through cutting edge technology. Its strategic travel management services focus on law firms, insurance companies, finance houses and the Energy Sector. More recently it has opened offices in Scotland, the US and the UAE. Reed & Mackay also provides an industry leading Event Management service. In the year to March 2016 Reed & Mackay handled nearly 600,000 client travel transactions.
Since ECI invested alongside Livingbridge in April 2011, the business has continued to outperform the market through investment in people and technology and has delivered consistent, profitable growth. The client base has grown over 68 per cent (a CAGR of 14 per cent) to nearly 500, while total transaction value passed GBP200 million for the first time in 2014 and is set to reach almost GBP250 million in 2016.
In addition, EBITDA has more than doubled, growing at a CAGR of 15 per cent over the last five years.
This business is now ideally placed to take its market leading service proposition to an increasingly international audience with support and funding from Inflexion, an experienced investor in the travel sector, particularly in backing companies where technology plays a pivotal role in delivering a differentiated service.
Fred Stratford, CEO at Reed & Mackay, says: “It has been an enjoyable and rewarding few years working with ECI and Livingbridge to help strengthen Reed & Mackay’s International footprint and to develop the value proposition in line with client demand. We have achieved a huge amount together and now I look forward to working with Gareth Healy, Mark Williams and the team at Inflexion on our next phase of growth.”
Chris Watt, at ECI, says: “We wish the team every success for the future. It has been a pleasure working with Fred, his team at Reed & Mackay and Shani at Livingbridge, over the past five years and to see the company develop into a world class business that is genuinely differentiated in its field.”
Shani Zindel, at Livingbridge, says: “It has been fantastic to have been part of the Reed & Mackay growth story over the last 11 years, a period that has seen them flourish as a market leader in strategic travel management for blue chip organisations. We have been proud to partner with Reed & Mackay over this period, and it’s been a pleasure to work with ECI since 2011. We wish the Reed & Mackay team the greatest success for the future.”
Simon Turner, Managing Partner at Inflexion, says: “We’re delighted to be investing in Reed & Mackay and working alongside its ambitious team to support the next phase of growth, both in the UK and overseas markets. Reed & Mackay is a classic Inflexion investment; great team, superior technology platform and superior service driving exceptional growth. We bring experience from across the travel sector both with consumer brands, Scott Dunn and On the Beach, where bespoke technology also played a significant part in growth and differentiation, and corporate travel through Griffin Global Group, all successful multinational businesses.”
