UK

Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013

WINNER - PETER DEBENHAM DEAL: Isis invests £18m in YSC MBO

NAME: Peter Debenham COMPANY: L.E.K Consulting WEBSITE: www.lek.com

DEAL OVERVIEW Q

Please summarise the transaction

• ISIS Equity Partners (“ISIS”) has completed an £18m investment in YSC, in a deal valued at £38m. See www.ysc.com.

• YSC is a global firm of business psychologists, with 120 consultants working from 15 international offices, helping the world’s leading organisations achieve commercial success through releasing the power of their people. Founded in London in 1990, the business opened its first overseas office in New York in 2000 and has since expanded across the globe

• YSC works closely with many of the FTSE 100, including clients such as BP, Diageo and HSBC. Its core services include assessments, benchmarking leadership, identifying potential, measuring change and building talent pipelines. The expertise that YSC brings is increasingly relevant for global companies in an environment of increasing competition, regulation, challenging growth, internationalisation and skills shortages.

Q

What was your role within the transaction

We provided commercial and operational due diligence advice to ISIS. In effect we assessed

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the global market and segmentation for YSC’s services, the competitive environment that it competed in and what its clients perceived to be its competitive position. We interviewed a wide range of YSC’s clients globally and found that they uniformly felt that YSC was at the top of its peer group. We also critiqued management’s business plan from both an internal and external perspective

YSC is a global firm of business psychologists, with 120 consultants working from 15

international offices,

helping the world’s leading organisations achieve

commercial success through releasing the power of their people.

Q difficulties presented What were the challenges or Q

The main challenge was the tight timeframe in which to complete our scope which required

What are your thoughts and predictions for 2014 and beyond

It will be a great year with lots of opportunities www.finance-monthly.com 53

substantial input, data and time commitment from YSC management, coupled with accessing and interviewing senior client management to interview them to gain their perspectives on YSC

Q

How were the challenges or difficulties overcome

We required a strong project management capability to ensure that the logistics worked perfectly! Part of the challenge was to free up partner time on other projects as we were heavily involved in the interview process, but our colleagues were (luckily) accommodating

Q with

I have lead a number of business services transaction over a number of years, including the sale of Foster and Partners to 3i, the purchase and sales of ERM for Bridgepoint, the sale of The Deb Group to Charterhouse

What other types of clients or transactions have you been involved

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