© Livingstone Partners 2012
Livingstone Partners LLP is regulated by the FSA
website by Hughes Media
Livingstone Partners LLP is regulated by the FSA
website by Hughes Media
Livingstone Partners is an international investment banking organisation,
the partner firms of which are separate legal entities. All rights reserved.
LG building relationships in Marketing Services
January 2007
Livingstone Partners has negotiated another successful disposal in the Marketing Services sector, amid evidence of continuing strength in the sector.
MoonRiver, parent company of ION Group, is a specialist provider of data-focused customer relationship management services. Its flexible offering means that clients can build successful campaigns based around the following services – experiential, mystery shopping, contact centres, fulfilment and affinity partnerships. Using data to inform the process at every stage, MoonRiver Group enables its clients to attract customers, build lasting relationships, create loyalty and recapture lost customers.
The Group has been sold to German-owned Arvato Services, part of the Bertelsmann Group, for an undisclosed sum, and comes just nine months after Livingstone Partners’ sale of Dataforce to AIM-listed Twenty plc for £11 million.
The deal was the result of a marketing process undertaken by Livingstone Partners that brought firm offers for the business from trade purchasers in the USA, UK and continental Europe, but the Bertelsmann Group was seen to offer the best fit in terms of culture and future opportunities.
Since Stewart Millington and Stephen Woodward founded MoonRiver in 1988, they have carried out a buy-and-build strategy that has resulted in a group turnover of £13 million and profits of £1.2 million. The company employs 220 staff from its offices in Twickenham.
Nigel Morgan, the Livingstone Partners director who negotiated the transaction says: “Having purchased small contact centres and consolidated them, the owners of MoonRiver agreed with us that the market would be highly receptive to a disposal and we were appointed to carry out the task."
Stephen Woodward commented: “Livingstone Partners’ understanding and knowledge of the marketplace was second to none, and we are delighted with the result they have achieved.”
Tim Lyle, Partner
Tel: 020 7484 4710
Email: tlyle@livingstonepartners.co.uk
Nigel Morgan, Director
Tel: 020 7484 4733
Email: nmorgan@livingstonepartners.co.uk
Michelle Holford
Tel: 020 7484 4715
Email: mholford@livingstonepartners.co.uk