Yahoo Finance Moulton Shrinks Better With Santia Disposal
The buyout firm headed by the veteran investor Jon Moulton is closing in on the sale of another of its flagship investments amid a broader downturn in its portfolio's performance.
Sky News understands that Better Capital, the group set up by Mr Moultion six years ago, is in exclusive talks with Inflexion Private Equity about a sale of Santia, a supplier of health and safety risk management services.
A deal is understood to be imminent and could be announced as soon as this week.
Better Capital's sale of Santia comes as the firm explores a disposal of Jaeger, the fashion retailer, and follows its decision to offload Fairline, the yacht-maker, for a knockdown price.
Santia, which counts DHL, Direct Line (Other OTC: DIISD - news) and E.ON among its clients, was rescued by Mr Moulton from the ashes of property services group Connaught in 2011 in a deal which salvaged hundreds of jobs.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) offers services such as health and safety consultancy, training services, asbestos management and food safety management.
Advisers at PricewaterhouseCoopers are overseeing the sale process.
Sources said on Tuesday that Inflexion planned to merge Santia with Alcumus Group, another risk management group, which it acquired for £92m last month.
The price that Inflexion has agreed to pay for Santia was unclear on Tuesday, although the book value of the business was revised upwards by nearly £4m, Better Capital said in June.
That represented a rare piece of recent good news for the firm, which specialises in acquiring troubled companies and turning them around.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) this month, it said: "The Board of Better Capital PCC Limited has been advised by BECAP12 GP Limited, the general partner of BECAP12 Fund LP of recent trading underperformance in certain of the 2012 Fund portfolio companies.
"Reflecting this, it is presently anticipated that the Net Asset Value at 30 September 2015, in respect of the 2012 Cell, will show a decline in the region of 20%."
The Jaeger sale process remains in its initial stages, just weeks after Colin Henry, the company's chief executive, left the company, leaving it facing the most important sales period of the year without a permanent boss.
Last Christmas Eve, City Link, the courier company then owned by Better Capital, collapsed into administration, prompting recriminations over its management and sparking calls from MPs as well as Mr Moulton for an overhaul of the UK's insolvency regime.
Clearing three of City Link's former directors last week of breaching labour relations laws, however, a magistrate questioned the Government's attempt to prosecute the trio.
