Aston Carter
Deal Summary
Catalyst acted for the shareholders of recruitment business Aston Carter on the partial sale and vendor-led management buy-out funded by Baird Capital Partners.
Established 12 years ago by its CEO Sean Zimdahl, Aston Carter is the UK’s leading recruitment consultancy to the IT, Banking and Financial Services sectors with a client base which includes many of the world’s leading financial institutions such as Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Suisse. Amongst its clients, contractors and competitors, Aston Carter is well known for having a unique and special culture that promotes the highest standards of client service and technical knowledge in the recruitment market.
The Group has grown internationally to serve the European and the Far East IT, consultancy, ERP and end-user markets, both from its head office in London and its growing overseas office network in Stockholm, Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo and Singapore.
What difference did we make?
Aston Carter is an innovative, fast moving, entrepreneurial, people based business and at our first meeting Sean Zimdahl selected Catalyst for our drive, energy and commitment to getting the best deal for him.
Sean’s original objective was to sell the business to a large international trade buyer to support Aston Carter's international growth. However, at 42, Sean didn’t want to retire, he still thoroughly enjoyed managing the business and wanted to continue to drive the strategy to expand internationally, and he had huge loyalty to his staff; all of whom he had recruited.
Catalyst presented a solution that was a partial sale of the business to private equity which enabled Sean to remain as CEO and invite 43 second tier managers to subscribe for shares in the business and in so doing, retain and incentivise them to help him grow the business.
On this basis Catalyst shortlisted four private equity funders and helped the management team present the business and elicit offers for 51% of the business. Ultimately Baird Capital Partners were chosen based on their experience in the recruitment sector and their ability to help Aston Carter to expand overseas.
The most challenging aspect of this transaction was working closely with the management team to help them understand the impact of taking on private equity funding and what this would mean to them and the culture of Aston Carter.
