Our objective is to build successful, profitable businesses working alongside ambitious management teams to deliver growth
Building great businesses together
Every business we invest in, we believe in. We invest where we can see the potential to create and deliver value growth.
A catalyst for change
What we do
Throughout our investment period, our prime focus is working with management to help drive growth.
Our approach is driven by three overriding aims:
To add value
Our primary goal is to help our management teams maximise the value of their businesses. We take an active role in helping the development of our portfolio companies which is both flexible and supportive. We understand the opportunities and challenges facing growing businesses and we tailor our involvement to meet those needs.
To support our management teams
Our aim is to be a supportive partner. Motivated management teams are the key to a company’s success, and whilst our investment style is to be ‘hands on’ and available, we leave the running of the business to management, and look to support them in any way we can.
To deal openly at all times
From our first dealings with a management team, a vendor or their advisers, through to the realisation of an investment, we aim to be straightforward, transparent and responsive in our dealings with all parties at all times.
Investment Criteria
We specialise in providing between £1m and £10m of equity finance for established unquoted UK companies.
Entrepreneurs
We back entrepreneurial and dedicated managers who want to grow their businesses. In addition, an Encore-backed management team typically has a strong track record of delivering revenue and profit growth, a deep knowledge of its sector, and a clear strategic plan.
We have a very flexible approach and seek to work with proven management teams across a wide range of industries.
We are comfortable with elements of complexity in businesses or transactions that we are targeting, and have a strong track record of addressing challenging or incomplete management solutions.
We specialise in providing between £1m and £10m of equity finance for established unquoted (and sometimes quoted) UK companies looking to complete management buy-outs, management buy-ins, institutional buy-outs and development capital (replacement, expansion and acquisition) transactions.
Target sectors
While we will consider investing in a broad range of sectors, we are especially attracted to service companies with strong growth prospects. In particular, we have considerable experience of investing in Leisure, Digital, Education and Industrial services.
Leading businesses
We invest in companies with profits typically in excess of £500k which are leaders or potential leaders in their market segments. Our typical transaction size is £5 million to £20 million enterprise value and our focus is on established companies based in the UK, which have proven business models.
Our approach
What distinguishes us is the commitment we bring to our investments and the quality of the relationships we build.
Facilitating international development - setting up in new markets is a common and often successful way to grow a business and reduce reliance on a single domestic market. We have significant experience in helping UK-based companies to grow in this way.
Separation from a larger parent - this can allow a previously non-core division the room to grow into an independent and viable entity.
Capital investment programmes - we will seek to support projects which may be viewed in the short term as a cost, but yields attractive results in the medium to longer term.
We take a long-term view. We do not have fixed plans on how or when to realise an investment, although we will usually have a view on likely routes to an exit. In reality, we are typically invested for four to five years.
Don’t just take our word for it. If you’d like to talk to one of our portfolio company managers about the way we go about things, we’d be happy to put you in touch with them.
Wherever possible we will seek to leverage our business experience and network of resources to provide our companies with unique industry insights and access to key strategic relationships and management talent.
We develop a detailed understanding of the businesses we back, and we take a long-term view of their potential. From day one, we work with management to identify and execute the most attractive growth opportunities. We understand that continuity is important, which is why the team that works on the transaction is the one that stays with the business. The investment team leads the transaction and helps management shape the strategic agenda and prioritise and execute opportunities that accelerate growth.
Together with management we will appoint an experienced and independent non-executive who will bring relevant experience to strengthen the board. Strategies for creating value may include:
Operational improvement - our team’s experience can help to identify ways to improve an existing business to position it optimally for future growth.
Accelerating growth through acquisitions - a significant number of our portfolio companies have made complementary acquisitions after our initial investment. These may be small, opening up a new market or complimentary client base, or large and transformative.
“Encore continues to add real value to our business. They contribute both strategically and operationally and provide a wealth of support to our management team. “
Ian Mahoney
Chairman – Third Space
“We were keen to have Encore as an investor in our fund as they have a strong presence in the entrepreneurial and investment community – their people network, deal experience, and pre and post investment approach could also be of significant value to Episode 1.”
Damian Lane
Partner – Episode 1