The Kempen Private Markets Fund has acquired a direct interest in UK healthcare consultancy Channel 3 Consulting (Channel 3). Channel 3 designs, implements and optimises digital transformation programmes for the health and care sector.
Established in 2009, Channel 3 helps its clients harness the power of technology to deliver better patient outcomes, improve services and operate more efficiently. Over the past decade, Channel 3 has worked with over 90 organisations across the National Health Service (NHS), private healthcare, local government, the Ministry of Defence and the wider public sector. It is currently appointed to several key NHS frameworks.
Kempen co-invests in the management buyout together with its long-term UK investment partner WestBridge Capital and as a group they have a majority stake in the business, with the balance owned by the Channel 3 management team.
Sven Smeets, Managing Director of Kempen Private Markets, comments: ‘With Channel 3 we back a highly experienced management team in the buyout of a niche, high growth digital healthcare consultancy business. In recent years, CEO John Howard and his team have proven their ability to capitalise on Channel 3’s strong fundamentals in the growing and dynamic health and care sector, which demonstrates great momentum for further digitalisation. We are delighted to be part of this journey together with our partner WestBridge Capital and we are committed to supporting management with the growth of Channel 3 in the years to come.’
Jorrit Willigers, Director of Kempen Private Markets, adds: ‘An example of a project that Channel 3 is focusing on is the digital transformation of the UK’s NHS. The need to digitalise the NHS has been understood for many years and the challenges presented by Covid-19 have emphasized this further. Longer term, the launch of NHSX in 2019 – a collaboration between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement tasked with driving the digital transformation of healthcare – presents strong opportunities for Channel 3.’
Guy Davies, Managing Partner at WestBridge Capital, says: ‘We are pleased to report that with the support of our co-investor Kempen we have successfully closed the management buyout of Channel 3. We are delighted that Kempen has chosen WestBridge as its UK private equity investment partner and that they are co-investing with us in Channel 3. We look forward to working with Kempen and the management team on this very exciting opportunity. We have worked together with Kempen for years on various other successful deals and we view the Kempen team as a partner in an alliance that offers room for professional, long term entrepreneurial investing.’
