Epiris’ portfolio company Diamorph makes its 4th add-on acquisition in less than 2 years

POSTED 02 December 2021

Epiris today announces that Diamorph, a supplier of advanced material solutions for demanding and safety-critical applications and a portfolio company of Epiris Fund II, has made its fourth add-on acquisition, which is also the ninth add-on acquisition to be made by a Fund II portfolio company. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

Diamorph is a leading supplier of advanced materials solutions that protect people, equipment and buildings in demanding applications and environments. Headquartered in Manchester in the United Kingdom, the company designs, manufactures and sells high performance products for fire protection and composite and ceramic products for a variety of industrial process and high temperature applications to customers in more than sixty countries worldwide. Epiris invested in Diamorph in 2019.

Diamorph’s four add-on acquisitions include Brandguard and PFC Corofil in fire protection and Tufnol and Permali in composites. Brandguard and PFC Corofil design and sell passive fire protection products to prevent the spread of fire into and within buildings in the USA and UK, respectively. Tufnol and Permali manufacture composite materials; they will build on Diamorph’s existing library of materials whilst adding global domain expertise in civil and defence aerospace applications. Brandguard was the first in this series of acquisitions, closing in 2020, followed by Tufnol and Permali earlier this year; the most recent acquisition, of PFC Corofil, closed this week.

Alex Fortescue, Managing Partner at Epiris, said:

“This is a great example of the way we build M&A strategies at our portfolio companies. With these four add-on acquisitions over the course of the last eighteen months or so we have almost doubled Diamorph in size whilst also bringing new technologies and customers that can be built on in future.”

Charles Elkington, Partner at Epiris, said:

“These acquisitions reflect the tremendous progress Diamorph has made since our investment in 2019. Our ambition is to create a global market leader by expanding routes to market, demonstrating new application engineering, and adding scale through add-on acquisitions. With the business now in strong organic growth and the fourth add-on acquisition complete, we are well on the way to achieving this ambition.”

The Epiris team on the deal is Charles Elkington, Alex Fortescue, Aaron Atwal and Pablo Espinoza.

Epiris and Diamorph are advised by TLT on legal matters. Lloyds Banking Group, Santander, Aviva Investors and NatWest have provided senior debt facilities to Diamorph.

For Epiris LLP please contact:

Greenbrook Communications

Robert White, Matthew Goodman, Daniel Oliver

+44 (0)20 7952 2000

epiris@greenbrookpr.com

About Epiris

Epiris is a top-decile* private equity firm which invests in opportunities to transform businesses in partnership with exceptional management teams. It targets control positions in UK-headquartered businesses with an enterprise value of between £75 million and £500 million, deploying between £40 million and £150 million of equity.

Fund I

Between 2011 and 2016 Epiris invested £1 billion in buyouts and loan-to-own debt investments in respect of which it has delivered a gross IRR of 38%*. Synthetic net returns from this portfolio are in the top-decile of European private equity funds of comparable vintages.

Fund II

Epiris Fund II is an institutional private equity fund raised in 2017. Investments made by Fund II include Portals, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of “substrate” for banknotes; TI Media, one of the largest consumer magazine publishers in the UK, which the Fund sold to Future plc for £140 million in April 2020, generating a return of 2.1x MOIC, a 44% IRR; The Club Company, the UK’s largest country club operator; Bonhams, the global auction house; Diamorph, a supplier of advanced material solutions for demanding and safety-critical applications; IFG, a financial services business comprising James Hay, which provides investment platform services, as well as Saunderson House, an independent wealth manager and financial adviser which the Fund sold to Rathbone Brothers Plc for £150 million in October 2021; The Big Table, a leading UK restaurant operator; and Sharps, the UK’s leading supplier of bespoke fitted bedroom furniture.

For further information, please visit www.epiris.co.uk.

Issued by Epiris which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

*As at 30 September 2021. Gross IRR does not reflect adjustments for investment management and administration costs. Comparator data supplied by Preqin. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.