Electra Partners acquires a £13.4 million stake in CALA Group Limited

POSTED 18 April 2013

Electra Partners today announces that is has invested £13.4 million as a co-investor in Patron Capital Partners ("Patron") and Legal & General's acquisition of premium home builder, CALA Group Limited ("CALA" or the "Company"), from Lloyds Banking Group. The transaction, which was led by Patron, valued CALA at £210 million and was financed by £70 million of debt and £140 million of equity. Electra Partners' investment creates further balance sheet capacity for the continued expansion of the Company's current land bank of 9,900 owned and contracted plots.

Headquartered in Edinburgh, CALA Group is a national house builder which provides high quality homes in the North, East and West of Scotland, in the Midlands and in the South East of England, focusing on high quality, well designed homes in prime locations, from starter homes to luxury detached family properties. CALA achieved significant growth during 2012 and this trend has continued into 2013; with strong growth in private home sales, whilst maintaining average sale prices.

The Electra Partners deal team for this transaction included Alex Fortescue, Charles Elkington and Tom Stenhouse.

This investment follows a busy start to 2013 for Electra Partners having recently announced the realisation of its investment in esure, which generated a 3x return, and two major investments: the acquisition of UBM plc's data services businesses and the investment in a portfolio of secondary private equity funds.

Electra Partners refers to Electra Partners LLP acting on behalf of its client Electra Private Equity PLC.

Ends

For further information please contact:
For Alex Fortescue:
Nick Woods, M:Communications  +44 (0)20 7920 2348
Nicholas Board or Andrew Kenny, Electra Partners  +44 (0)20 7306 3902

Note to Editors:

About Electra Partners LLP
Electra Partners is an independent private equity fund manager with more than 30 years' experience in the mid-market. As at 30 September 2012, the firm had funds under management of over £1.3 billion. The firm's flexible investment approach allows it to invest across a broad range of sectors and financial instruments including equity, senior equity, convertibles and mezzanine debt. Concentrating principally on Western Europe, and with the majority of investments expected to be made in the United Kingdom, Electra Partners typically seeks to invest in the region of £40 to £120 million of equity, in deals of up to £300 million enterprise value.

The firm's major client is Electra Private Equity PLC, a private equity investment trust which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1976. The firm also manages the Electra Partners Club 2007 LP, a fund raised in 2008 for the sole purpose of investing alongside Electra in controlled investment situations.

For further information please visit www.electrapartners.com.

Electra Partners LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About Cala Homes
CALA Group is a national house builder with its headquarters in Edinburgh. It provides high quality homes in the North, East and West of Scotland, in the Midlands and in the South East of England, with a focus on high quality, well designed homes in prime locations, from starter homes to luxury detached family properties. CALA is an acronym for City of Aberdeen Land Association (and therefore uses upper case letters).

Key Facts:

• CALA Homes builds around 875 homes each year.
• In the year ending June 2012, CALA reported its best results since the group was taken private in 1999. Total completions were up 35% and profit before tax increased nearly six fold on 2011.
• CALA Homes has an average selling price of £340,000 - significantly higher than any of its larger competitors.
• CALA Homes won Housebuilder of the Year, Best Medium Housebuilder and Best House at the 2012 What House? Awards. The company was also named Housebuilder of the Year and Best Large Housebuilder at the Scottish Home Awards.
• In March 2013, CALA Homes received the maximum 5 Star rating in the Home Builder Federation's National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey for the fourth consecutive year.
• Health and safety is of paramount importance to CALA. In 2012, the company reduced the number of minor injuries reportable under RIDDOR to five and has reported no major injuries in the last four years. Over the course of the last four years CALA has had the lowest average annual incidence rate of any housebuilder in the HBF benchmark of companies.

Current Trading as at 28 February 2013:

• Positive trading in the first eight weeks of 2013
• Home sales up 34% on the prior year period, at an average selling price of circa £330,000
• Land bank of 9,900 owned and contracted plots with a potential gross development value of circa £3.1 billion, equivalent to approximately 10 years' output on current projections
• The Group also controls a longer term strategic land bank comprising circa 5,400 plots