Leasedrive has confirmed that HgCapital, the European sector-focused private equity investor, has invested in its business and bought 80% of the Leasedrive Group.

LDC and the management have rolled 20% of their investment/equity into the new financial structure.

Fleet News revealed at the end of last week how the private equity company was poised to become the majority shareholder of the business.

And, the investment comes just weeks after Hg Capital sold online trading platform Epyx to the owner of the Allstar fuel card Fleetcor, in a deal worth about £13m

The senior executive team led by David Bird as managing director; Roddy Graham as commercial director; Paul Fleming as operations and sales director; David Foulds as financial director; Joe Howick as rental management director; Dominic Moran as account management director; and Sean Farrell as business development director remains the same, as will the senior management team.

Managing director of Leasedrive Group David Bird (pictured) said: “This new investment, which sees the senior management team retain equity and shareholding, demonstrates the confidence both we and our new backers have in the future of this company.”

Andrew Land of HgCapital, who will be joining the Leasedrive board, said: “We had previously identified the leasing sector as a core focus area and were particularly impressed with Leasedrive and the fantastic business built by its management.

“We see real growth potential for the company as more organisations recognise the potential of the company car as a recruitment and reward tool in the war for talent.”

Leasedrive is the UK’s 14th biggest contract hire company, funding a fleet of 20,872 vehicles according to the latest Fleet News FN50.

Its latest set of accounts reported a £29.8m jump in turnover for the year to 31 December 2012 to £131.7m, compared with 2011. Pre-tax profit also soared from £1.7m to £5.3m.

For more on Hg Capital's acquisition of Leasedrive, see the next edition of Fleet News. 


 

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