In Safe Hands
July 2007
Livingstone Partners are pleased to announce the management buy-out of Astbury Marsden, a specialist provider of recruitment services to the banking sector in the City of London with fast evolving professional services and commerce practices, and recently listed as the 49th fastest growing company in the UK. This is one in three recruitment based transactions for Livingstone Partners that have taken place over the last few months.
Livingstone advised CEO Jonathan Nicholson and COO Mark Cameron of Astbury Marsden on the MBO of the business and introduced them to relevant private equity players after Paul Marsden, one of the original founders, indicated his desire to exit from the business.
As a result, NVM Private Equity (NVM) has invested £5.6 million out of a total funding package of £17.5m deal. NVM expressed a strong desire to back the team who have strong industry credentials and have delivered several years of profitable growth prior to the deal.
Mark Cameron comments: “After successfully overcoming the recession of 2002/2003, Astbury Marsden has grown strongly and we now service a number of leading investment banks. The MBO gives us the funding that will allow us to take advantage of growth opportunities in our markets.”
Livingstone deal leader Christopher Jones commented: "Jonathan and Mark have already turned a good business into a great business. As a result of this deal the management team, who have created significant value for the vendor, now have an opportunity to build value for themselves by driving Astbury Marsden forward.”
For further information contact:
Tom Phipps
T: +44 20 7484 4717
E: phipps@livingstonepartners.co.uk
