Dunedin, a UK mid-market private equity firm, has provided acquisition funding to support the ongoing buy and build strategy of CitySprint, a UK distribution network.
The deal sees Dunedin employ its trademark DebtBridge product and is Dunedin’s second deal in five months from its GBP250m fund, following the management buyout of Weldex.
CitySprint has a national network of 31 service centres. Turnover has grown through the recession from GBP46m in 2007 to a forecast GBP61m year ended December 2010.
Shaun Middleton, managing director, new investment at Dunedin, says: “CitySprint is the market leading business in the same day courier segment, with a highly scalable business model and an experienced, capable management team that has delivered impressive growth in recent years.”
Patrick Gallagher, chief executive of CitySprint, and Gerard Keenan, finance director, will continue to run the business.
Gallagher says: “We are delighted to haveDunedin as our equity partner going forwards. The Dunedin team quickly got to grips with the fundamental drivers of our business and worked extremely hard to complete this deal. They will make a strong financial partner providing us with further opportunities to grow faster and capitalise quicker on our hard earned sector dominance, whilst ensuring the services and products we provide remain both innovative and relevant to our customer needs.”
