Hamilton Bradshaw Human Capital (HBHC) acquires Eden Brown

Hamilton Bradshaw Human Capital (HBHC), the specialist staffing sector investment fund, has acquired Eden Brown.

James Caan, the pioneer behind the Alexander Mann Group, chairs HBHC; the acquisition was led by Caan and Tristan Ramus at HBHC.

Having watched the market closely over the past three years, Caan and Ramus reviewed a host of staffing companies and found that Eden Brown represented an excellent platform to support HBHCís development and build strategy. ìEden Brownís management, staff stability and performance are exemplary,î says Ramus. Eden Brownís turnover this year will be in the region of 180m, with a mix of public sector, private sector and long-term government contracts through its Matrix business.

Ian Wolter, chief executive of Eden Brown, will remain in his current role while expanding this to support, as Eden Brown CEO, future acquisitions by HCHC. He emphasized that Eden Brown will retain its core brand identity while benefiting from the skills, experience and scale that HBHC will bring to the partnership, and said: ìThis is the catalyst needed to take what is already a good company and make it into a great company, unlocking the latent profit that lies within Eden Brown, accelerating our growth and offering greater opportunity to the team of hugely talented staff.î

HBHC have underlined the brand value and respect that Eden Brown commands within the staffing sector. ìEden Brown is an excellent platform to create another brand of real excellence,î says Caan, who made his name in the sector by building up Alexander Mann from scratch and now speaks with pride of sales in excess of 300m this year.

Ramus adds: ìSince the shopping spree of the late 1990s, the recruitment market has continued to mature; pricing is stable and stock market performance has been robust. Our view within both HBHC and Eden Brown is that the buy and build strategy hasnít really fulfilled its potential to date outside of the professional services arena, and we hope to create a very solid business with good margins and visible future earnings through VMS and RPO. At Hamilton Bradshaw weíre really looking forward to working with the Eden Brown team and moving forward.î

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

The transaction has been backed by Investec, 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 itself. We are very excited about our partnership and we are looking forward to backing further acquisitions as part of HBHCís development strategyî.