Primary’s sale of Leisure Pass group to Exponent Private Equity has been named UK Mid-Cap Deal of the Year at the 2017 Private Equity Awards hosted by Real Deals this week. This is the second time Primary has won in this category in recent years, having won the award for the sale of Napier Turbochargers in 2014, a transaction which generated a 5.5x return.
Leisure Pass Group, which was acquired by Primary in May 2012 from a group of private investors, generated an impressive return of 7.0x cost of investment for Primary’s third fund. The deal was yet another high returning exit for Primary, with over half of all Primary exits since inception having returned over 3.0x cost of investment.
When selecting the winner, the judges were specifically looking for evidence of the GPs role in helping to create value and contributing to the strategic development of the business and were impressed by the initiatives undertaken during the course of Primary’s ownership. These included the development of numerous new passes across Europe and the US, enhanced product content, a new concierge site to maximise post-sale and in-city customer activity and the digitisation of product delivery through mobile and app-based ticketing. All of this was underpinned by powerful data analytics to gain insight into customer behaviour. During the 4 years of Primary’s ownership, both revenue and EBITDA trebled.
Following the implementation of these value-creation initiatives during Primary’s ownership, a formal process was launched in September 2016 and Leisure Pass was sold in December 2016.
Contact Neil Wallace for more information