Lonsdale Capital Partners has sold digital transformation consultancy P2 Consulting to Waterland Private Equity-backed Valcon for a 2.7x return on investment.
P2’s revenues grew by 2.5x under Lonsdale’s ownership, reaching GBP 23m in 2021. Lonsdale took a majority stake in the company in a management buyout in 2016. During that tenure, P2 made two acquisitions, bolting on financial crime specialist FS101 and business technology consultancy Certeco, both in 2017.
Existing management have rolled some proceeds over into Valcon, a source close to the company confirmed.
It is the fifth exit this year for Lonsdale, and the fourth from its current fund, Lonsdale Capital Partners, which closed in April 2016 on its hard-cap of £110m.
This year, Lonsdale previously exited Cross Rental Services (CRS), a cooling and heating specialist; mortgage broker Charles Cameron; flexible plastic package group Amerplast; and superyacht maintenance company GYG.
Buyer Valcon is backed by Waterland, which has been consolidating the consultancy services sector. Waterland merged its portfolio consultancy businesses First Consulting, Valcon and Viqtor Davis in February 2021 to make a group with €100m in revenues and 800 employees.
Company
P2 Consulting was founded in 2013 and primarily operates in the UK. It provides project management services to support digital transformation at large blue-chip corporates in rent, utilities and financial services. It has around 30 active clients at any one time.
People
Lonsdale Capital Partners – David Gasparro (partner).
P2 Consulting – Pip Peel (founder and executive chairman); Phil Rolfe (CEO).
Advisers
Vendor – Clearwater International (M&A); Burness Paull (M&A); Alvarez & Marsal (financial due diligence); LEK Consulting (commercial due diligence).
Management – Osborne Clarke (M&A).
