Equistone completes £380m sale of Apogee to HP Inc.

Mid-market private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe has completed the sale of managed print services provider Apogee to HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), in a deal that values the company at £380m.

Maidstone-headquartered Apogee employs over 1,000 staff and operates from 25 office locations across the UK and Europe. It has grown turnover to over £250m this year, becoming one of Europe’s largest independent providers of managed print services.

The business provides organisations including SMEs, corporates and the public sector with printing, scanning and workflow solutions from global brands including HP, Ricoh, Canon, Xerox and Konica Minolta.

Equistone took a majority share in the company in September 2016, in a deal worth £185m. The private equity firm has supported the business through a number of acquisitions including Kopiervertrieb Rhein-Ruhr GmbH (Germany), Danwood Group (Lincoln), CityDocs (London) and Clarke Office Solutions (Cambridge). Combined with strong organic growth, Apogee has grown its revenues from around £120m and headcount from around 450 in two years.

Apogee will continue to operate as an independent provider of managed print and outsourced digital document services and be led by joint CEOs Jason Collins and Robin Stanton-Gleaves.

Andrew Backen, Partner at Equistone Partners Europe, said: “It has been a pleasure working with Apogee’s management over the past two years which have seen the business grow strongly in the UK and into continental Europe. We have been delighted to support them in an ambitious acquisition programme. It is testament to the strength of the team that Apogee caught the eye of one of the largest tech companies in the world and we are confident Apogee will continue to prosper under ownership of the enlarged group.”

Jason Collins, Joint CEO at Apogee, said: “It has been a really successful partnership with Equistone and the acquisition is recognition of their support, and the commitment and professionalism of the whole team at Apogee. We have worked closely with our private equity partners to execute on opportunities that have considerably strengthened our position in the UK and continental European markets. We look forward to the next stage of our development with HP, which puts us in a strong position to accelerate Apogee’s growth.”

The vendors were advised on the transaction by Rothschild and Pinsent Masons.