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SOUTHERN entrepreneurs


Inspired by Fairsail and LDC


A select group of 30 delegates attended the Southern Entrepreneurs private dinner at Oakley Hall, situated on the outskirts of Basingstoke, to network, share stories, and listen to the views of two industry experts


In a brief recap on the market conditions since Brexit, Caswell pointed out that the immediate 20% devaluation in sterling had produced a surge of interest from overseas acquirers, and there had been “no let-up” since then. The next 18 months might be more uncertain, but as a portfolio investor, LDC would remain active in the market.


Adam Hale, executive vice-president, Sage People (formerly Fairsail), took the room on a whistle-stop tour of the past five years’ growth of Fairsail, during which time the company’s revenues soared from £1m in 2013 to an annualised £17m in 2017, up until the point of its acquisition in March 2017 by Sage People.


Tamsin Napier-Munn, Jonathan Caswell, Martyn Begbou, UBS, Adam Hale and Toby Johnson , UBS


Tamsin Napier-Munn, campaigns manager of The Business Magazine, introduced the evening, sponsored by UBS Wealth Management, as “an opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs to enjoy honest conversations and make valuable connections”. Napier-Munn also highlighted some of the recent success stories from the entrepreneurs in the room, including Magal Engineering’s acquisition by Arlington Industries; Adaptix’s latest fund-raising round; Clarify’s 20% year- on-year growth; Xcel Sales growth of 400% since January this year; and Roc Technologies being awarded the FT’s accolade of Fastest Growing Company of its Kind.


Jonathan Caswell, investment director of LDC, discussed the UK outlook for investment opportunities while highlighting four successful examples of mid-market companies who had grown to the next level using private-equity funding and expertise. Throughout these LDC case studies, Caswell emphasised the importance of identifying the value upside and exploiting this by partnering with companies who possessed desires and objectives in alignment.


34 businessmag.co.uk


These examples illustrated the breadth of LDC’s range and expertise. For example, Airclaims began life as an aviation loss- adjuster, and in the process gathered a huge amount of data on planes. After assessing the growth options, the company was split into two, with the data business fetching a market value of almost double that of the core loss-adjusting business.


Fever-Tree meanwhile has been a stellar success story, starting out life in 2005 as a supplier of premium carbonated mixers (high-class tonics) and growing exponentially to post revenues of £102 million for the 2016 financial year and a market capitalisation of over £1.7 billion. LDC was an early-stage investor, advising Fever-Tree on marketing, distribution, and product range in order to maximise its growth potential, before exiting three years’ later at a substantial premium, although as Caswell wryly noted: “It’s always good to leave something on the table for the next investor ... but maybe not that much.”


The other examples, Leasedrive and Ecuem, an offshore corporate trust provider, both also benefited from LDC’s ability to help the companies see the upside and find the right partner to exploit that upside.


Fairsail specialises in cloud-based HR information systems and solutions for multinational companies, and was one of the earliest adaptors of this technology when it was founded in the late 1990s.


Hale admitted to the room that he was not a classic entrepreneur, having spent most of his early career in corporate: 10 years at Accenture, and 16 years as a technology headhunter for Russell Reynolds. He was then appointed by Fairsail as a non- executive director in 2012, and then as an executive chairman in October 2013, at a time when Fairsale had only 15 people and revenues of £1m. The spectacular growth over the next five years was funded by only £6m of investment capital and hinged on Fairsail’s focus upon “doing one thing very well”.


Hale told the audience that his journey to selling the company to Sage was inevitably different to the exit routes that others in the room might have taken. His advice included ‘hold your nerve’ while he also had an antipathy to earn-outs.


Business THE TM MAGAZINE THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2017


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