Eurotel in £44 million buy-out
Article Date: Nov 21 2007Inflexion Private Equity, a specialist in ‘the small mid-market’, has led the secondary buy-out of business telecoms provider Eurotel for £44 million. The management team, led by chief executive Chris Jagusz, will remain in place while Inflexion’s assistant director Andrew Mainwaring and managing partner Simon Turner, who led the transaction, will join Eurotel’s board.
Some £21.3 million of the consideration was provided by funds managed by Inflexion, giving the private equity firm a majority shareholding in Eurotel. A further £21.5 million of debt was committed by Lloyds TSB’s acquisition finance division, while the balance was invested by the management team and Young Associates, the private investment firm founded by Lord Young of Graffham, which backed Eurotel’s original management buy-out in 2005 for £19 million.
Turner comments that Inflexion was impressed with Eurotel’s market position and scope for growth. The company targets its services at companies with fewer than 50 employees, which Inflexion states spent more than £2.6 billion on telephony services last year.
Eurotel has offices in Halifax and Coventry, and employs 300 people. It was founded in 1992 by brothers Robert and Keith Lutener, who sold the business in 2005. Its turnover in the year to March 2005 was £27 million.
