London
Global city
Not only do the largest number of qualifying private equity-backed companies in our dataset hail from London, but these businesses also top the charts in terms of compound annual Ebitda growth, soaring to more than 155% in the period.
We wanted the additional support that private equity can provide, which we got in spades
Clearly, London houses an impressive array of portfolio companies and that is in large part due to the city’s prominence as an international business and economic centre. By far the most prominent sector to which the highest growth companies belong is business products and services. Given London’s vast commercial ecosystem, this finding is not surprising.
One of those high-growth B2B companies is Access Partnership, a global firm providing advisory services to technology businesses in the fields of regulation and public policy. The business received investment from Mayfair Equity Partners in July 2022, having previously been backed by Mobeus in a deal worth £13m in 2019.
According to Access Partnership’s founder and CEO Greg Francis, the initial investment from Mobeus came about because the time was right to work with private equity. “We felt we needed to do something fairly complex in terms of the ownership structure and exiting some of the partners. We also wanted the additional support that private equity can provide, which we got in spades.”
Not long after Mobeus invested, the pandemic hit, which caused a surge in demand from both companies and governments to implement digital strategies.
“That meant we moved fairly quickly with Mobeus and soon our organic growth needed to be supplemented with non-organic growth,” says Francis. “We were ready to graduate to mid-cap private equity.”
A process was kicked off and unsurprisingly, given the company’s impressive growth, more than 20 houses were vying for Access Partnership. “We whittled that down to a list of four and Mayfair was our first choice, particularly because they have a lot of what we needed in their value creation partners; for boosting our M&A, marketing, brand and improvement of our own technology infrastructure,” says Francis.
Another attraction to Mayfair was the focus on supporting the people function. “After the pandemic there were unsurprisingly anxieties around retention, moving into a hybrid working environment and attracting new talent in order to grow,” adds Francis.
Finally, Mayfair’s track record in the technology sector also helped. “They were enthusiastic about the business and they could really see that we offer an indispensable service,” says Francis.
During the past 18 months, Mayfair has been working on all of the above value creation levers, particularly on professionalising the company’s sales operations, marketing and brand, as well as attracting new talent.
The key [during Covid] was to switch from physical conferences to digital very quickly and effectively
On the M&A front, Francis says the pipeline is looking good but notes that 2023 wasn’t the best year for acquisitions. Access Partnership is now in a strong position to take advantage of the groundwork it has done for both its organic and non-organic growth strategies. “We had a lot of good conversations in 2023 and now in 2024 people are getting on with doing deals. This is also when the investment in our organic growth comes into play. With a reasonable to fair wind, we should be able to grow organically at the pace of our five-year plan,” says Francis.
For Francis, being headquartered in London is predominantly driven by the city’s access to talent. “We provide an international service, which requires an international workforce. For that, London is the best place.”
Mike Tilbury, senior partner at Graphite, echoes this sentiment: “London is a huge source of talent and a hotbed of scientific intellectual capability. There are many examples of international businesses with a London base.”
One of those businesses is Hanson Wade, a leading provider of difficult-to-obtain information, which provides critical insights primarily to R&D scientists and other participants within the global life sciences industry. Graphite backed the company’s management buyout in August 2019. Says Tilbury: “It was a classic transaction for us; we specialise in buyouts and it straddles the life sciences, technology and business services sectors that are key areas of focus for us.”
Graphite had been tracking Hanson Wade for some time ahead of a deal process. “We had done our homework,” says Tilbury.
“We had strong angles on the deal, were successful in demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the market, the business and its growth opportunity, and were able to build a strong relationship with the management team.” All of these factors saw Graphite emerge as the winner of the competitive process.
Following the investment, Graphite supported the company in focusing and building on its core strengths. “When we invested, Hanson Wade was a market leader in the conference space, especially in life sciences. We felt the business should increase its focus on life sciences, using its position in the sector to broaden its range of services. It had a nascent data business, Beacon, and we saw an exciting opportunity to really build on what had been achieved so far with that offering,” explains Tilbury.
Investing in the company’s data offering proved to be a very wise move. “When Covid hit, it presented a difficult challenge given Hanson Wade’s reliance on hosting physical events. We’re very proud of the way we worked with the management team to navigate through that time. The key was to switch from physical conferences to digital very quickly and effectively. We also focused very carefully on pricing – helped by our clear understanding of the importance of Hanson Wade’s data and the strong relationship the company has with its clients – which proved very successful,” recalls Tilbury.
These decisive and strategic moves enabled Hanson Wade to demonstrate resilience during this difficult period and facilitated a strong recovery from the pandemic. “We continued to invest in Beacon throughout Covid to create a leading data business, which consolidates clinical trial data. Beacon now has over 300 clients and provides a highly valuable tool for clients, enabling huge efficiency and quality benefits to their work,” adds Tilbury.
Not only was the business able to elegantly pivot during the pandemic, it changed the entire trajectory of Hanson Wade. “The critical importance of the data that Hanson Wade disseminates for scientists and pharmaceutical companies was brought to the fore and it emphasised the role that the company plays in that ecosystem,” says Tilbury. “It reinforced our conviction in Beacon and our focus on the life sciences sector.”
In parallel with strong growth in revenues and profit, Hanson Wade’s headcount has more than doubled since 2019, including a broadening of the management team and a significant investment in data analysts. “Growing Hanson Wade’s data offering will continue to be a key strategic focus going forwards, as we further improve the competitive position of the group in this large and exciting global market.” says Tilbury.
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“Private equity houses are excellent at assisting with value creation, including operational effectiveness, buy-and-build or international expansion. Private equity prides itself on this, and if you can drive value creation then by default those companies become more valuable, which then drives further value creation."
James Newman, Partner, Audit, PE Leadership Team, BDO
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