Private Equity News & Analysis

Quadrant sells ATF back to CHAMP

The sale of the temporary fencing provider is, say the two firms, Australia’s first tertiary buyout. It was originally invested in by CHAMP Ventures in 2004.

-

Quadrant Private Equity has sold height safety services provider ATF Services to CHAMP Private Equity for an undisclosed sum.

According to a joint statement, the sale is Australia’s first tertiary buyout and also the first investment from CHAMP III Funds.

Quadrant acquired a greater than 70 percent stake in ATF from CHAMP Ventures and the company’s founder, Derek Rynenberg, in 2006. The total transaction was valued at over A$130 million ($99 million; €77 million at the time) and was made from Quadrant Private Equity Fund I, which closed on $265 million in 2005.

That deal represented a 3.5x return for CHAMP Ventures, which had invested a total of A$9.5 million in the company on two separate occasions since 2004 for a holding of more than a 40 percent.

Though no financial details on the transaction have been disclosed, Quadrant managing director Chris Hadley stated that revenue at the company had increased “significantly and earnings have nearly doubled” since the firm invested.

CHAMP director John Haddock stated that as Australia’s first tertiary buyout, the deal demonstrated “the continuing maturity of the domestic private equity market”.

Founded in 1989, AIF Services provides temporary fence and height safety services to the residential, non-residential, engineering construction and special events sectors.

Sydney-based Quadrant has $765 million of funds under management. The AIF sale is the firm’s second exit in the past eight months. In October 2009, along with co-investee JBWere Private Equity, it exited its investment in outdoor clothing retailer Kathmandu via an A$375 million IPO.

CHAMP, also based in Sydney, is approaching a final close on its CHAMP III Funds, which a source told PEI Asia had raised close to A$1 billion by April this year. The firm is targeting A$1.5 billion and expects to reach that target later this year.

CHAMP also today announced it had sold private education provider Study Group to US private equity firm Providence Equity Partners for A$660 million.