A&O, Camerons, Freshfields seal Welcome Break sale
Allen & Overy (A&O), CMS Cameron McKenna and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have snared key roles in the £500m sale of Welcome Break, the motorway services company.
The chain was sold by buyout group Investcorp, advised by A&O, to Appia Investments, a consortium of funds represented by Freshfields.
Camerons was instructed by Welcome Break's management in the firm's first major transaction for the company since winning a three-firm beauty parade last year.
Bahrain-based Investcorp bought Welcome Break in 1997 for £473m, a transaction on which A&O advised. The sale sees the end of one of the longest-held investments by a private equity group.
The Freshfields line-up on the deal was led by senior corporate associate Piers Pritchard-Jones, while A&O partner Ian Lopez represented Investcorp.
Camerons corporate head Andrew Sheach, who led the Welcome Break team, said: "Welcome Break service areas are a familiar sight on our motorways and I am delighted that we were able to advise their management on this important stage of their growth."
The buyer, Appia Investments, comprises the NIBC European Infrastructure Fund, the ING European Infrastructure Fund and Challenger Life, which is run by Australian billionaire James Packer.
Welcome Break is the second-largest operator of motorway services areas in the UK, with 27 sites across the country.
Readers' comments (7)
Anonymous | 9-Apr-2008 1:10 pm
The returns buyout firms are famous for...err...
So Investcorp made £27 million from the sale after an 11-year investment.
5.5% overall or a 0.5% annualised return. They must be very pleased...
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Anonymous | 9-Apr-2008 4:55 pm
Returns
although you are looking only at capital growth- how much income did they take out over the 11 years?
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Anonymous | 9-Apr-2008 5:12 pm
Err...not quite....
less the legal and other fees which as we know are a bit on the steep side once you get on the motorway...
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Anonymous | 9-Apr-2008 8:18 pm
first comment not necessarily true ...
the owners could have paid themselves massive dividends in their 11 years of ownership!
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Anonymous | 10-Apr-2008 9:45 am
restructuring
There were lengthy (and I assume expensive) bondholder disputes in 03 -04 over restructuring and refinancing Welcome Break's 1997 whole business securitisation, which hit trouble when the company didn't grow fast enough to generate enough money to repay bondholders. Fair to say that the company probably wasn't a cash cow...
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Anonymous | 10-Apr-2008 2:45 pm
Assumptions....
You probably should not assume that what has been sold is the same as what was bought....
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Anonymous | 28-May-2008 8:26 pm
welcome to slave labour-no breaks
Most assumptions have an amount of truth.
Perhaps Appia will attempt to hear the voices of those on the frontline who attempt to deal with customer concerns and who are constantly ignored.
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