Private Equity News & Analysis

Deal Round-up 04/07/01

Allen and Heath MBO backed by 3i, Tweed Investments buys Sundridge Park and uSwitch wins third round

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3i back Allen and Heath MBO.

Allen and Heath, the manufacturer of professional audio mixing desks has been bought for £9m by a management team backed by 3i from Harman International Industries. The venture capital firm contributed £4m and debt funding for the deal came from Bank of Scotland. Allen and Heath had revenue of £11m last year and supplies mixing desks to clients such as the BBC and MTV Europe.

UK Training centre bought by Tweed Investments.

Tweed Investments, the joint venture investment vehicle between Bank of Scotland and Hanover International, is buying Sundridge Park Training and Conference Centre from PA Consulting Group for £15m. Sundridge Park is one of the leading training and conference centres in the London area with 150 bedrooms and over 50 conference and training rooms. The deal was made up of £11.5m in cash and a guaranteed loan note of £3.5m and is expected to complete later this month.

uSwitch wins third round.

uSwitch.com, the online price comparison service, has received £1.8m of third-round funding which it says it will use to fund further product roll-outs. It also announced that it has acquired competitor buy.co.uk to become the leading home services comparison site in the UK. The company says it is set to break even in December 2001.