Lyceum Capital backs MBO of Briefing Media Group
Lyceum Capital, the growth investor, has backed the management buyout of fast-growing business information company Briefing Media Group.
The deal provides an exit for Kester Capital, three years after its original investment.
Briefing Media owns Farmers Guardian as well as a growing portfolio of other online and print agriculture brands, including Agrimoney.com. It also owns a number of events and exhibitions, including LAMMA, the UK’s largest agriculture event, and the British Farming Awards. The group also operates The Media Briefing, which provides strategy insight and market intelligence for senior decision makers in the media industry.
The business was founded in 2010 by CEO Neil Thackray, the former chief executive of Nexus Media Communications and Quantum Business Media, and chief marketing officer Rory Brown, previously group marketing director of Incisive Media. The management team — which also includes chief financial officer Rupert Levy — has since acquired business-to-business media assets, including Farmers Guardian, which Briefing Media bought from UBM in 2012.
In the year to December 2014, Briefing Media had revenues of £13m (2013: £11m). The business employs 80 people across offices in Preston and London.
Lyceum, which has invested alongside the management team, will support Briefing Media in its strategy of organic and acquisitive growth through providing premium paid-for content, including online portals Agrimoney and FG Insight, marketing solutions and advertising, and industry events and exhibitions.
The investment team was led by Lyceum partners Daniel Adler and Jonathan Bourn, investment manager Adam Lewis and investment executive Alistair Gray. Daniel Adler will join the board of Briefing Media along with Lyceum operations and development partner David Harland.
Daniel Adler said: “The management team has developed a profitable portfolio of premium assets providing information services to the UK agriculture industry. As a result, Briefing Media is a thriving, digital-led information, content and events group and a leading example of how to build successful modern media brands.
“The business is highly cash-generative and there is scope for expanding the portfolio, both in the UK market and potentially overseas. Meanwhile, Lyceum’s investment will provide the management team with the necessary firepower to continue to build its portfolio with targeted acquisitions in what is a fragmented agriculture information sector.”
Neil Thackray, CEO of Briefing Media, said: “Kester Capital has been a supportive partner for us as we have grown Briefing Media over the past three years, providing us with the backing to build a leading portfolio of assets that offer those in the UK agriculture industry an unrivalled range of information, services and events.
“The business is now well-positioned for its next phase of growth. With their track record of supporting management teams and offering the expertise and financial backing to make complementary bolt-on acquisitions, we felt that Lyceum was the perfect new investment partner.”
Cameron Crockett, a founding partner of Kester Capital, said: “We would like to thank the management team, led by Neil Thackray, Rory Brown and Rupert Levy, for their exceptional work over the last three years.
“It has been a pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with such an outstanding team and we wish them, the wider team and Lyceum every success for the future.”
Following Lyceum’s investment, Briefing Media will appoint an experienced non-executive chairman and an announcement will be made in due course.
The investment has been made from Lyceum’s third fund, which closed at £330m in 2013. Briefing Media is the second information and media business in its portfolio following Lyceum’s investment in Compact Media Group in 2010.
Since inception in 1999, Lyceum has raised over £800m and acquired more than 100 companies (including buy-and-build add-ons).
Lyceum was advised on the Briefing Media investment by Livingstone Partners (corporate finance advice), PwC (financial due diligence and tax), Olswang (legal advice) and Ocean Strategy (commercial due diligence).