30 Oct 2012 Acquisition of Buy As You View
Rutland Partners, the specialist turnaround and restructuring investor, announces that on 26 October 2012 it agreed and completed the acquisition of Buy As You View (BAYV) from a syndicate of banks for a consideration of £33.1 million in an all equity transaction.
Based in Wales, BAYV is a retail and consumer finance business which sells a range of electrical and household goods to customers who pay on a weekly basis. The business was originally established in the Rhondda Valley in 1972 and over the last ten years has expanded into the Midlands, Scotland and across the north of England. It has a customer base of over 75,000 and staff of 550 spread throughout the regions and at the head office in Bridgend.
The senior management team, led by Adrian Hill (Chairman) and Graham Clarke (CEO) will remain with the business and are investing alongside Rutland. Over recent years the business has made a partial recovery helped in part by improved controls and by significant developments in new smart meter payment collections technology. The strategy is to complete the turnaround through the roll-out of the new smart meters across the network and to fund controlled growth in customer numbers managed through the existing regional network.
Rutland’s acquisition of BAYV will be the seventh investment from Rutland Fund II (£320 million) and the sixth transaction this year for Rutland following the bolt-on acquisitions by Brandon Hire and Laidlaw Interiors Group in addition to the successful sales of Attends Healthcare, Pulse Home Products and NoteMachine.
Ben Slatter, Partner at Rutland said:
Rutland’s acquisition of Buy As You View gives the business much needed stability and a firm financial base on which it can return to controlled growth. We are excited by the opportunity to back Adrian Hill and Graham Clarke in their strategy to improve performance and develop the business further.
Graham Clarke, CEO of BAYV said:
“This deal is great news for future growth, investment and employment. We now have the resources to drive forward our programme of developing new technology and more efficient, sophisticated services for our customers. We are committed to continuing to grow the business from our strong base in South Wales and we have ambitious plans to build on our existing loyal customer base, reaching out into more communities and continuing the evolution of our product range and service offer.”
The transaction was led on behalf of Rutland by Ben Slatter with support from Paul Cartwright, Tristan Craddock and Michael Reynolds.