3i DEALS WITH THE LOGISTICS OF A £50 MILLION IBO FROM ICL
Regent advised ICL in this transaction
LOGiCOM, formally the Logistics Division of ICLs services arm, has been acquired for £50 million through an institutional buy-out led by 3i, Europe’s leading venture capital company. 3i has taken a majority stake in the business.
LOGiCOM offers an end-to-end supply chain service covering forward and reverse logistics flows on a pan-European basis. These services fall into three categories: basic logistics services, including the provision of warehousing, transport and distribution facilities value-added logistics services, including procurement, the management of equipment spares and repairs, and warranty claims and stock ownership efficiency, planning, placement and holding of sufficient levels of stock to meet contracted service requirements.
As a newly independent business, LOGiCOM will focus on providing unique IT supply chain services to multi-vendor service providers (MVSPs) and OEMs.
The company has already secured a cornerstone contract with ICL to provide both its existing and future logistics service requirements. It will also target new customers who wish to outsource the management of IT inventory and related services. The buy-out by 3i provides the opportunity to create the first pan-European third party logistics business supplying the IT services/hardware sector with an all encompassing service offering. This new model is forecast to revolutionize the IT services supply chain market.
The transaction constitutes the third 3i-backed buy-out from ICL in the last four years. 3i has also recently provided support to a number of logistics related companies such as the £29m MBO of Isotrak, the provider of advanced technology logistics management systems for fleet operators and most recently the £200m management buy-out of Target, a leading UK parcel express company.
The LOGiCOM buy-out team was led by its Managing Director, Reto Jost. They will be joined by Terry Stockley, previously Chief Executive of Exel Europe, as non-executive Chairman. Reto Jost, Managing Director of LOGiCOM, said, we have secured the independence and financial backing required to exploit our position as the only fully pan-European third party logistics business supplying the IT services and hardware sector.
There is a growing trend towards the outsourcing of inventory management and other value-added services, on behalf of MVSPs, and I believe that LOGiCOM is ideally placed to become a market leading player in this area.
Steven Nicholls, who led the 3i team on the deal, said” This deal is further proof of 3is credentials in the logistics and IT services sectors. This is an excellent opportunity to support an innovative business model in an expanding European market. We firmly believe that LOGiCOM is well placed to deliver substantial value to the logistics industry and expect to see rapid growth in demand for its services”.
