US buyout house wins race for credit checking firm Callcredit
CREDIT reference agency Callcredit Information Group has been sold to a US-based private equity outfit as part of a £480m-plus management buyout of the group.
The Yorkshire business, which employs about 950 people in the UK and overseas, has been bought by Chicago-based GTCR after winning a hotly contested bidding process, with management taking a significant stake in the buyout.
Callcredit was previously owned by London-based private equity house Vitruvian Partners, who had held a controlling stake in the company since 2009.
Callcredit chief John McAndrew, who has put his own money alongside other executives into the venture, said he was pleased to go into business with GTCR. “They understand technology and added-value growth,” he said.
Callcredit was set up 14 years ago and offers a similar service to larger rival credit checking agencies like Experian.
ADVISERS CALLCREDIT
TARIQ HUSSAIN
JEFFERIES
Investment bank Jefferies International was lined up as corporate finance adviser to Callcredit. The deal team from Jefferies was led by Tariq Hussain, managing director in the firm’s global mergers and acquisitions group. Hussain, who joined Jefferies in 2010, was previously co-head of European M&A and global head of the financial buyers group at Dresdner Kleinwort, where he spent 12 years. Prior to that he was a manager at Arthur Andersen before joining Dresdner.