Polestar advised on the Management Buy-Out of GTK UK Ltd, a Basingstoke-headquartered technology manufacturer.
The company, which has bases in Basingstoke and Taiwan, provides electronic component design, procurement and manufacture to both UK and international customers. Servicing sectors such as precision instrumentation, defence/security and contract equipment manufacturing, it grew steadily in the four years leading up to the transaction, achieving year-on-year revenue increases of 17%, and reaching turnover of £9.4m for 2013.
YFM Equity Partners, backed the deal, providing GTK with a funding structure to facilitate the exit of George Homes, the original founder, on his retirement, and support the management team’s future growth strategy.
Polestar LLP, led by Partner Charles Whelan, provided Financial Due Diligence for YFM in this transaction.
Commenting on his collaboration with Polestar, Paul Cannings, Director at YFM Equity Partners, said:
“Charles Whelan and his team understood the key issues we were looking to address and focused their work on these, taking an intelligent and commercial approach.”
Charles Whelan, Partner at Polestar, commented:
“It was a pleasure to work with both YFM and management on this deal. It was a particularly interesting assignment given the local and international drivers pertinent to a business. GTK uses its manufacturing facilities both here in the UK and in the Far East to maximise the strengths of its UK expertise alongside very efficient high volume overseas procurement. GTK demonstrates once again that well run manufacturing businesses, with a strong, well thought through offering continue to present interesting and valuable opportunities for management and investors.”
