Employment Services Holdings Pty

Deal Summary

Catalyst advised Australian employability services market leader Employment Services Holdings Pty Limited (ESH) on the £43 million acquisition of Birmingham based Pertemps People Development Group Limited (PPDG).

ESH is the largest for-profit provider of employability services to the Job Network scheme in Australia. Formed in 2007, it had already made 3 acquisitions in its domestic market with private equity backing from Champ Ventures, and has a strategy to create a global employment and people development business.

Formed in 1998, PPDG has over 650 employees across 40 locations in England, and regenerates local communities through employment.

The acquisition created a global employment services and training provider with a combined workforce of over 1,400 staff operating from 138 sites across the UK and Australia.

What difference did we make?

Having been recommended to ESH for its knowledge of the UK market, and research capability, Catalyst was mandated to undertake a search for suitable targets in the welfare to work sector, with PPDG subsequently identified as a key strategic opportunity.

As an integral member of the ESH team, Catalyst worked to identify the key risks in the opportunity, helped ESH form an advisory team to appraise the opportunity, project managed due diligence and extensive financial modelling and delivered the final deal.

We also helped recruit non-executive directors for the UK Advisory Board, led ESH and the management team of PPDG on their preparation and documentation of a detailed 100 day plan, and led the preparation and delivery of the interim and final Investment Papers to secure Board approval from ESH and Champ Ventures.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the deal that we overcame was the negotiation of complex cash and share consideration structures, with multiple private vendors rolling over value into the Australian company.