For a second year running, the investments of LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, feature most prominently on the annual Sunday Times Deloitte Buyout Track 100.
Published this weekend for a sixth year, the league table ranks Britain’s 100 private-equity-backed companies with the fastest-growing profits (ebitda) over the last two years.
LDC is the private-equity house with the highest number of investments on the league table. Seven of its companies have won places, compared with ten last year. These range from outdoor equipment retailerMountain Warehouse (No 64), to BigHand (No 11), which develops dictation software used in the legal and healthcare sectors.
3i follows a close second with six portfolio companies, ranging from luxury lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur (No 8) to AESSEAL (No 94), which makes industrial seals for companies in the mining, oil and gas sectors.
Equistone (formerly Barclays Private Equity) has five investee companies on the table. It holds a 60% stake in business travel agency ATP International (No 83) and at the end of last year bought a majority stake in The Mill (No 97), which creates digital visual effects for adverts, computer games and films, such as The Chronicles of Narnia.
Twenty-five of this year’s Buyout Track 100 were the subject of buyouts in 2011, compared with 27 companies bought out in the 12 months preceding the league table published in February last year.
Fifty-four of the companies on the table are backed by private equity for the first time, including Hunter (No 4), the upmarket Wellington boots maker, in which Searchlight Capital Partners bought a controlling share in December. Thirty-seven companies have been transferred between private equity houses. Of these, 26 were secondary buyouts, seven were tertiary, and four were quaternary.
The Buyout Track 100 is sponsored by Deloitte, Lloyds Bank Wholesale Banking & Markets and Skillcapital. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based networking events and research company, which champions the UK’s top-performing private companies and entrepreneurs.
Well-known brands featured on the league table include fashion retailer Jack Wills (No 43, backed by Inflexion); patisserie and café operator Patisserie Valerie (No 88, owned by Luke Johnson and Risk Capital Partners); and restaurant chain YO! Sushi (No 89, backed by Quilvest).
Mark Pacitti (pictured), head of London corporate finance advisory at Deloitte, title sponsor of the league table, says: “Despite the many challenges facing the UK economy, it is very pleasing to see so many successful private-equity-backed businesses. It is clear that strong management teams supported by private equity investors can deliver above average performance which in turn makes them attractive M&A candidates.”
Despite tough economic conditions, over the past two years the 100 companies on the league table have grown their profits by an average 51% a year to combined profits of GBP1.3bn.
Over the past two years, they added 22,731 staff, to reach a total of 91,577 staff.
The increase in profits is tempered by the high levels of debts owed by many of the companies on the table, which amounts to an average £49m per company, equivalent to four times profits. The figure includes bank debt as well as shareholder loans.
The companies are based in London (38), the southeast (19), the north (18), Midlands (14), Scotland (4), east (3), southwest (2), Wales (1) and Northern Ireland (1).
