© 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.
Lifetime has the skills for Sovereign
September 2011
Livingstone Partners’ Business Services sector team has advised the shareholders of Lifetime Training Group on the investment in the business by private equity investor Sovereign Capital Partners. Sovereign is backing the current management team led by David Foster and Heather Frankham and its investment will enable Lifetime to continue to actively grow through acquisition.
Established in 1995 as a fitness consultancy by the Executive Chairman of Lifetime, Heather Frankham, Bristol-based Lifetime has since expanded through organic and acquisitive growth to become one of the UK’s 10 largest providers of vocational training courses. Lifetime offers Apprenticeships, NVQ’s and other training courses across a range of sectors including: Leisure, Hospitality, Business Support Services, Retail and Social Care, and is the largest provider of vocational training to the fitness and leisure markets. Its client list includes David Lloyd Leisure, Fitness First, Nuffield and Moto and Hilton. In spite of the recession, Lifetime has managed to triple its sales in the last three years to £24 million last year.
Heather Frankham, Executive Chairman at Lifetime, said: "The partnership with Sovereign is an exciting step in Lifetime's development and will help support and finance the objective of growing the business. The Livingstone team understood what we were looking for from private equity and worked tirelessly to help us bring in the right partner for the company.”
Patrick Henchoz, Non-Executive Director at Lifetime added: "The Livingstone team added huge value to the company and the shareholders throughout the entire process, allowing us to draw on their deep sector knowledge and PE expertise to achieve a successful outcome."
Simon Cope-Thompson, Partner at Livingstone commented: “Given its track record of supporting buy and build programmes and its depth of experience in the sector, Sovereign is an excellent partner for the Lifetime team as they continue to expand.”
Tom Phipps, who heads up Livingstone’s Human Capital team said: “We believe that this is an exciting time for high quality training companies with strong management teams to secure external funding. Lifetime is an excellent example of what can be achieved.”
For further information contact:
Simon Cope-Thompson, Partner
Tel: 020 7484 4706
Email: sct@livingstonepartners.co.uk
Tom Phipps, Director
Tel: 020 7484 4717
Email: phipps@livingstonepartners.co.uk
Simon Cooper, Deal Leader
Tel: 020 7484 4701
Email: cooper@livingstonepartners.co.uk