Electra Partners Announces the Acquisition of Allen & Heath

POSTED 21 June 2013

Electra Partners is pleased to announce the acquisition of mixing console manufacturer, Allen & Heath, from D&M Holdings. £43 million of equity and debt has been provided by Electra Private Equity PLC and Allen & Heath's management.

Founded in 1969, Allen & Heath designs and manufactures audio mixing consoles for live sound, such as concerts, theatres and houses of worship. With an experienced management team and an extensive global distribution network, the company holds a leading market position and has consistently achieved strong revenue growth for over twenty years. Allen & Heath's existing team and distribution networks will remain in place.

Commenting on this acquisition, Alex Fortescue, Chief Investment Partner at Electra Partners said:

"The ability to invest across the capital structure, in this case funding both the equity and debt instruments, is a great example of Electra's flexible investment mandate being put to work to ensure a swift completion for the vendor and a straightforward structure for the business to capitalise on both organic and acquisitive growth opportunities."

Charles Elkington, Investment Partner at Electra Partners added:

"Allen & Heath is a leader in a niche market with an excellent track record of year-on-year growth. We believe that the company has a bright future and we will be looking to work with Glenn Rogers and his team to grow the business through further investment in new product development, improved marketing and distribution, and through acquisition."

Glenn Rogers, Managing Director at Allen & Heath, said:

"We are very excited about working with Electra Partners and the opportunities it presents for the next phase of Allen & Heath's growth. We have an excellent catalogue of existing products and a number of exciting prospects in development. We see opportunity for expansion into new areas and look forward to building Allen & Heath's long-term future alongside Electra Partners."

The Electra Partners deal team for this transaction included Charles Elkington, Ian Wood and Shakira Adigun-Boaye.

This is the fourth investment Electra Partners has announced this year, following the previously announced co-investment in CALA Group and the acquisitions of AXIO Data Group and the EP I Secondary Portfolio.

Electra Partners was advised by Taylor Wessing LLP. Allen & Heath and D&M Holdings were advised by Houlihan Lokey and Ropes & Gray International LLP.

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

Ends

 

For further information please contact:

Kate Ruck Keene and Charlotte McMullen, M:Communications
+44 (0)20 7920 2322
Nicholas Board and Andrew Kenny, Electra Partners LLP
+44 (0)20 7214 3902

 

Note to Editors:

About Electra Partners LLP
Electra Partners is an independent private equity fund manager with over 30 years' experience in the mid-market buyout sector. As at 31 March 2013, the firm had funds under management of over £1.6 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.

For further information please visit www.electrapartners.com.

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

 

About Allen & Heath
For over 40 years, Allen & Heath has been at the forefront of professional sound. Renowned internationally for its British-designed, high quality products, the company has set many benchmarks in sound technology, developing industry standard products for the DJ, PA and House of Worship markets, and becoming an early pioneer of distributed digital mixing systems.

Allen & Heath started out providing mixing consoles for the bands Genesis, The Who and Pink Floyd. Its current portfolio covers a broad spectrum of the industry, with recent users including Adele, Frank Ocean, Morrissey, XFM, Capital Radio, Maracana Stadium in Brazil, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong and Paul van Dyk.

Products include the iLive and GLD digital mixing systems, Qu-16 rackmount digital mixer, iDR digital installation series, Xone DJ range, ZED compact mixers, XB series of dedicated broadcast consoles, GS-R24 and ZED-R16 recording mixers, ICE multi-track recorder, and the GL, MixWizard and PA analogue Series.