South: Ethos Partners leads £22m Motocaddy buyout

Ethos Partners LLP has completed the £22 million buyout of Motocaddy Holdings and announced the appointment of Patrick Wilson as vice-chairman and Natalie Leyhane as investor relations manager.

Ethos confirmed the £22m buyout of Europe’s leading provider of powered golf trolleys, Motocaddy.

The transaction was led by Ethos Partners, whose HNW investor clients provided equity funding to support the acquisition. Ethos Partners is a private investment office set up by private equity professionals to provide £3m-10m of supportive equity capital to established, ambitious UK companies.

Senior debt and equity was provided by specialist debt fund manager Beechbrook Capital, who provide flexible finance to support the expansion of SMEs across Northern Europe.

Founded in 2004, Hertfordshire-based Motocaddy is an established, market-leading brand with a proven track record of providing a suite of technology-led golf products, with a particular focus on powered golf trolleys. Motocaddy’s experienced management team have cultivated a leading reputation for product quality, design and technological innovation.

The buyout presents an opportunity to back an experienced team, led by CEO John Helas alongside founding management team members Neil Parker (sales director) and Paul Straker (product development director), to continue to deliver ongoing product innovation and to drive domestic and international expansion.

Sandy Farmer, partner at Ethos, commented: "The team at Motocaddy have successfully built an internationally recognised consumer brand, which is underpinned by the quality of its product, innovation and people. We believe the business is well placed to continue to expand internationally across existing markets and elsewhere. We look forward to supporting John, Neil, Paul and the rest of the team on the next phase of their journey."

Julian Carr, chief executive of Ethos, said: "We are delighted to welcome Patrick Wilson as vice-chairman. He brings a wealth of deal experience as a managing director of Hawkpoint Partners and chief executive of Stephens Europe. We are also very pleased to announce the strengthening of our client services team with Natalie Leyhane bringing to us hedge fund and PE investor relations and marketing experience from Warburg, Goldman Sachs and Tetragon Asset Management."

John Helas, CEO, said: "We are thrilled that Ethos will be partnering with Motocaddy to support the delivery of our growth plans. The Ethos team have understood our business throughout the process and I look forward to working with Sandy and the team as we all look to take the business forward."

Jon Herbert, managing director at Beechbrook Capital, added: "We are pleased to have completed this investment into Motocaddy, having been impressed by the management team and the products during our due diligence. Ethos and management’s plans for the business are exciting and we are looking forward to supporting them going forward."

Ethos was supported by HMT on financial due diligence; Latitude on commercial due diligence; and Harrison Clarke Rickerbys for legal due diligence and documentation.