Hamilton Bradshaw acquires Eden Brown

Hamilton Bradshaw Human Capital (HBHC), the investment fund specializing in the staffing sector has made its first acquisition. Led by Tristan Ramus and Chaired by James Caan, the pioneer behind Alexander Mann Group, the acquisition of leading recruitment brand Eden Brown represents an excellent platform to support HBHCís ëbuy and buildí strategy.

Ian Wolter, Chief Executive of Eden Brown will remain in his current role whilst expanding this to support future acquisitions by HBHC as its CEO. He reinforced that Eden Brown will retain its core brand identity whilst benefiting from the skills, experience and scale that HBHC can bring to the partnership. He says:

ìThis is the catalyst to make what is already a good companyÖ. into a great company. While unlocking latent profit, we will now accelerate our growth and offer greater opportunity to the team of hugely talented staffî.

HBHC has put great emphasis on the brand value and respect that Eden Brown commands within the staffing sector. Tristan Ramus comments:

ìThe management, staff stability and performance are exemplary and we at HBHC look forward to working with the Eden Brown team going forwardî.

ëEden Brownís head count currently exceeds 250 people with turnover this year expected of around 180m. Its clients are a mix of public sector, private sector and long term Government contracts through its Matrix business, which provides a good blend of business with balanced risk against market swingsí.

Ramus continues: ìSince the hedonistic shopping spree that took place in the late 90ís the recruitment market has continued to mature, pricing is stable and stock market performance has been robust.î

ìThe view within HBHC and Eden Brown is that the ëbuy and buildí strategy outside of the professional services arena has not fulfilled its potential to date and we hope not only to pioneer but to create a solid business with a blend of good margins and visibility of future earnings through vendor managed services and recruitment process outsourcing.î

Caan explained that ìEden Brown is an excellent platform to create another true brand of excellenceî. Caan speaks with pride at the success of Alexander Mann, which has achieved sales in excess of 300m this year.

HBHC will be looking for synergistic businesses in the coming months. The plan is to come to the stock market within the next 18 months with a business achieving sales over 250m with a nationwide spread of offices in major cities.

The transaction has been backed by Investec (Growth and Acquisition Finance Division), which has provided a facility of up to 30m to support the buy and build strategy set out by HBHC. Gary Edward from Investec commented:

ìOur philosophy at Investec is about teaming up with the right management team. We are extremely impressed with James and Tristanís vision for building HBHC and James Caanís track record clearly speaks for itselfî. He continues: ìWe are very excited about our partnership and looking forward to backing further acquisitions as part of HBHCís development strategyî.