Following nine years of private equity investment, Energist has secured the backing of two new firms as it looks to expand internationally.

Energist Group has undergone a management buy-in (MBI) led by a team including CEO Jonathan Prutton.

The £7 million deal for the medical and beauty equipment distributor has been backed by Beaubridge and WestBridge Fund Managers, and sees the previous majority shareholder Excalibur (formerly Merlin Biosciences) exit but retain a minority holding.

Swansea-headquartered Energist, which also has offices in Denmark, the US and Germany, has seen sales grow from £5.6 million to £9.8 million during the period between August 2009 and August 2011.

Prutton, who has been at the business for five years, comments, ‘Our products are used for the safe removal of hair and the reduction of fine lines, wrinkles and veins. Now that the public is starting to fall out of love with tattoos, we see this as just one big area of growth for us in the future.

‘We will also be developing our distribution network in Russia, Japan, Korea, South America and China where we are seeing huge surges in demand.’

Peter Buckley, partner at London-based Beaubridge, says that the business’s next step will be to expand its medical sector market share as well as pursuing an ‘aggressive’ new product development programme.

As part of the deal, Buckley will join the board of Energist alongside fellow new addition Sandy Smart, partner at Cardiff-based WestBridge Capital.

Smart adds, ‘We are pleased to invest in this deal as this is a robust and profitable business, which is set to expand as the management team introduces new products and establishes distribution in countries that are only just starting to embrace aesthetic treatments.’