Private equity firms preparing bids for Capita sell-off
The private equity backer of auction house Bonhams is among a group of funds examining bids for a basket of outsourcer Capita’s non-core businesses.
Sky News reported that Epiris was one of several private equity firms getting ready to bid for nine of Capita’s business units.
The subsidiaries up for sale include Capita’s travel and events arm, its debt collection and enforcement businesses and Tascor, which provides facilities management to fire and police services.
The report said Capita would only accept offers for all nine businesses being offered.
Capita has appointed bankers at Citi to handle the sale.
The process follows a tough time for the outsourcer which has suffered a share price drop of two-thirds from 168p at the start of the year to just 55p today on investor worries that a promised turnaround was failing to materialise.
Last week Capita announced a £62m loss before tax for 2019, with chief executive Jon Lewis admitting the transformation “is requiring more investment than we had expected in 2018”.
Last week Lewis and other directors bought tens of thousands of the reduced price shares as a show of faith in the company.
The nine businesses being sold account for roughly £40m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
A spokesperson for Capita said: “As part of our drive to simplify Capita, we continue to review and assess our portfolio as part of our growth strategy outlined in 2018.
“We decided in early 2020 to reorganise our specialist services division and, while some businesses within this division will remain with Capita and have been moved into other divisions, some of the other businesses are now being prepared for disposal.
“This process is ongoing and any potential proceeds are earmarked to help strengthen the organisation.”
Epiris declined to comment