Kerman & Co. advises the shareholders of CloserStill on a 4th round of Private Equity investment

Posted By Una Deretic

08 March 2015

Kerman and Co. advised the shareholders of CloserStill, the UK’s fastest growing international media and exhibitions business, on its sale to Inflexion Private Equity, in a deal where the management re-invested in the company. The transaction also involved the sale by Phoenix Private Equity of its stake in CloserStill acquired in 2012, and a partial exit and re-investment by NVM Private Equity who will continue as a shareholder in the CloserStill group. This is the fifth time that NVM Private Equity has supported the Closerstill management team in the past ten years, including its investment for their buy-out of Ithaca Business Media in 2005.

CloserStill has been a client of Kerman & Co. since its inception, and this deal is the latest in a series of private equity investments undertaken to fund the company’s growth strategy.  Over the past three years, CloserStill has expanded significantly through a combination of new event launches, strategic acquisitions and continued organic growth of existing events. The investment from this latest deal will be used to support expansion into new markets, as well as facilitating targeted acquisitions.

Andy Center, Chief Executive of CloserStill commented: “Daniel O`Connell of Kerman and Co. advised this management team on their initial MBO over ten years ago and he and his brilliant team have been alongside us every step of the way ever since, including advising on the setting up and initial financing of CloserStill followed by a stream of acquisitions and PE deals subsequently as the business has grown. Una Deretic did a great job for us on this, our biggest ever transaction, and worked seamlessly with our co-advisors at Addleshaw Goddard.”

Una Deretic (Corporate Partner) and Suzanne Proctor (Employment Partner) advised the shareholders of CloserStill on the transaction.