Dunedin funds £50m CitySprint MBO

Dunedin Capital Partners, the private equity firm, has supplied the bulk of the acquisition funding for a management buy- out of CitySprint, the same-day distribution company. The deal, including funding for future acquisitions, is worth more than £50 million.

It is the second transaction in five months to draw on Dunedin's 252m fund, following the MBO of Inverness crane firm Weldex. The firm raised the fund in 2006 from 21 institutional investors in the UK and Europe.

Dunedin will provide about 80 per cent of the equity funds and underwrite debt with the balance of funding provided by Royal Bank of Scotland.

CitySprint has a national network of 31 service centres. Turnover has grown through the recession from 46m in 2007 to a forecast 61m in the current year.

Nicol Fraser, a director at Dunedin, will join the board of CitySprint. Patrick Gallagher, chief executive of CitySprint and Gerard Keenan, finance director, will continue to run the business.