Alex Sleeth had worked for National Britannia (�NBG�) for eleven years before becoming Group Managing Director in 1999. Alex led the management buy-out team when the company was acquired in March 2005 by Lyceum Capital for �25 million.
In the months leading up to the acquisition of NBG, Lyceum worked extensively to identify opportunities in the environmental consultancy sector. Lyceum was particularly attracted to the current and forecast market dynamics. In 2004 the UK Safety Health and Environmental (�SHE�) consultancy market was estimated at �1.1 billion, and is forecast to grow at some 14% per annum over the coming decade. This growth is being fuelled by the proliferating UK and European legislation and regulation, a growing burden of compliance on business and government organisations and higher insurance costs.
Alex commented that environmental risk is an increasingly important area for firms to manage, �Global risk management is a growing requirement for most major companies as they move to protect themselves from prosecution, litigation and damage to corporate reputation. This demand has enabled us to build the business organically, increase sales across all market sectors and establish a strong client base.�
NBG provides a broad range of services and good visibility of earnings underpinned by long-term contracts. The company has an established blue chip client base across a broad range of industries, including a number of FTSE100 companies. It counts leading government and public sector bodies among its clients, including the UK Health and Safety Executive, for which National Britannia operates two information services.
The management buy-out supported by Lyceum represented an excellent opportunity to enhance and build upon these existing strengths to develop the business both organically and through add-on acquisitions.
Alex is confident of the future opportunities for NBG, �We envisage significant opportunities for further growth through add-on acquisitions, cross-selling of products to existing customers and development of our services. We aim to become the market leader in all of our fields of activity.�
Jeremy Hand, Managing Partner of Lyceum commented that, �National Britannia is ideally positioned to take advantage of consolidation opportunities within this fragmented, fast-growing market and Lyceum looks forward to working with the management team to achieve the shared vision of growth.�
Under the terms of the management buy-out, the management team reinvested a significant proportion of their proceeds from the sale. This demonstrated their confidence in NBG and its future, providing additional comfort to Lyceum in acquiring this market-leading business.
Alex concludes by saying, �We are delighted to have formed this partnership with Lyceum Capital. It will provide us with the firepower to substantially expand the business, support strong future growth and create jobs.�
