MJ Hudson has advised Maven Capital Partners on the final closing of Maven UK Regional Buyout Fund, its debut institutional private equity buyout fund, securing total commitments (including co-investment vehicles) of GBP100 million.
The Fund’s investment strategy is to target management buyout opportunities in UK companies with an enterprise value of GBP10 million to GBP40 million, aiming to invest between GBP5 million and GBP15 million in each transaction.
The Fund has already deployed close to GBP30 million in three transactions, supporting the MBOs of John McGavigan Ltd, UAP Ltd and Acton Banks Ltd, with equity investments of GBP10.25 million, GBP8.6 million and GBP9.65 million respectively.
All three businesses were acquired for their highly experienced management teams, competitive market position, distinctive product/service offering, and the potential for high growth via attractive organic or bolt-on acquisition strategies. Maven continues to see a strong pipeline of opportunities and expects to complete further investments during the remainder of 2019.
The Fund is Maven’s first institutional fund, and alongside its existing VCT and other client funds, brings the firm’s total funds under management and ready to invest to GBP630 million.
Commitments to the Fund were secured from a pool of institutional investors including Scottish Enterprise, a sponsored non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, enterprise, innovation and investment in business.
As part of an integrated advisory service, MJ Hudson Law provided legal advice from London, leading on the fund establishment, investor negotiations, and the closing of the fundraise, whilst MJ Hudson’s IR & Marketing Solutions advised Maven on investor relations matters, providing a full referencing service to its investors.
This combined legal and investor relations offering made the process of negotiating with large institutional investors significantly more streamlined. Further, the London team’s expertise in fund formations allowed MJ Hudson to act as a single source of legal advice to Maven on all aspects of the fundraise.
Eamon Devlin and Shervin Shameli led MJ Hudson’s legal team, with support from Edyta Brozyniak, Mark Silveira, Nikhil Nathwani, and Jacob Freeman. Matthew Craig-Greene and Nick Gordon led MJ Hudson’s IR & Marketing Solutions team, with support from Daniel Daines and Alexander Carlton.
Commenting on the closing, Eamon Devlin, Partner of MJ Hudson, Law, says: ‘This closing is a significant vote of confidence from investors in the UK private equity market. Having worked with the Maven team for a number of years, we are delighted to see them achieve a final closing on their maiden institutional buyout fund, and given Maven’s impressive track record from their highly experienced buyout team, we look forward to seeing their continued success and growth.’
Andrew Craig, Partner of Maven Capital Partners, says: “We have enjoyed a close working relationship with the team at MJ Hudson over a number of years; they provided a high quality service throughout the fund raising process and we look forward to working with them on future projects.”
