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Octopus backs Hydrobolt MBO

By Nick Britton on April 11 2008

Hydrobolt, a manufacturer serving the oil and gas industry, and its sister company Studbolt have been bought by their management in a deal worth £16 million. Mid-market investor Octopus backed the transaction with £4.5 million from its private equity and intermediate capital funds.

Senior debt facilities and an overdraft were provided by HSBC.

Hydrobolt’s group managing director Jamie Simpson led the buy-out. As part of the deal, Octopus has brought in Peter Andrews as the group’s executive chairman, while Simon Smith, who introduced the deal to Octopus, will join the board as a non-executive director.

Alistair Brew, who led the transaction for Octopus, will also join the group’s board. He comments: ‘Hydrobolt has been highly successful in the past three years, more than doubling in size, and the global end markets in which the company operates offer exciting prospects.’

Established in 1991, Wolverhampton-based Hydrobolt manufactures fasteners for use in high-temperature and high-pressure environments. The company employs more than 90 staff and its turnover in 2006 was £7.5 million.

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Comment by Martin James at 1:11pm, 21 May 2008

Obviously Octopus are wising up to the new opportunities. However, they have made some outrageous choices as far as MBOs are concerned. An example from the last 6 months is the MBO at The History Press, where Octopus PE lost some of the value of their initial investment and restructured the then NPI Media Group into The History Press under new management. The general opinion of the publishing industry and the private investors watching the developments is that this attempt was unsuccessful and Octopus PE should look for exit pretty well now.