LDC bags dual success at Thames Valley Dealmakers

LDC’s South team won two awards at the Thames Valley Dealmakers Awards on Thursday last week, being named Private Equity House of the Year and winning Large Deal of the Year for the team’s successful exit of ByBox.

The award wins follow a successful period with the team completing a raft of transactions. Over the past twelve months, LDC’s South team has invested in British Waterways Marinas (BWML) and recruitment technology firm Amberjack. The team’s investment in BWML, the largest operator of inland marinas in the UK, is supporting the development of its existing marina estate to continue to improve customer experience, broaden its leisure services and add new locations. Meanwhile, the investment in Amberjack is helping the management team to broaden its current service offering and further develop its proprietary software.

The team also exited its investments in ByBox and BOFA. LDC sold ByBox, specialists in smart locker technology and field service solutions, to Francisco Partners in September 2018, in a deal that valued ByBox at £221 million. The deal, which won Large Deal of The Year at the Thames Valley Dealmakers Awards, followed a significant growth period for ByBox after LDC’s initial investment of £37.5million in 2016, when the firm was valued at £105million. LDC supported ByBox’s management team in growing the business significantly, helping them more than double the value in two years.  During this period ByBox launched new offices in the US and relocated its UK headquarters from Didcot to Oxford, to better accommodate its increasing number of employees.

LDC’s South team, led by Head of LDC in the South Chris Wright, continues to support the growth of firms across its portfolio, including cloud communications specialist babble cloud and leading vendor of HR software CIPHR.  The team will also play an important role in delivering LDC’s pledge to invest £1.2bn of equity nationwide into ambitious high-growth companies over the next three years.

LDC in the South has invested over £540million since 2000, backing more than 60 of the most ambitious management teams in the region across a range of sectors.

More information on the Thames Valley Deals Awards winners can be found here.