Risk Capital Partners makes 2.5 times return on marketing company sale

Risk Capital Partners has sold its 25 percent stake in Loewy, a creative design and marketing services business, to the company’s shareholders, for £2.5 million ($5 million; €3.7 million).  The sale, which values Loewy’s entire business at £20 million, generated a 2.5 times return on Risk Capital Partners’ original investment and internal rate of return of 41 percent, according to a statement.

Lucky Strike: a Raymond Loewy design

Risk Capital Partners bought Loewy in March 2004 for £1 million, backing the merger of Raymond Loewy International; the company built around industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and Wilson Harvey, a London-based marketing agency, to form Loewy as a buy-and-build vehicle.

Ben Redmond, director at Risk Capital Partners, said: “It was a very small investment and we wanted to do bigger deals.  The business was in a position to organise a share buyback because of its growth.”

Risk Capital Partners’ only other investment in the media sector is in Superbrands, a London-based publishing business.

Risk Capital Partners’ other full exits in the last 15 months are the sale of Signature Restaurants, a London-based restaurant company, for £91 million; Mayfair Gaming, a bingo operator, for £27.5 million, and Integrated Dental Holdings, a UK dental practices operator, for more than £100 million.