YFM exit Indigo-Belcom generating a 4.2x return

YFM Equity Partners (“YFM”) have exited their investment in Indigo-Belcom, to Growth Capital Partners, generating a return of 4.2x original cost to their funds.

YFM invested in the management buyout of Indigo Telecom in 2016, alongside Maven Capital Partners, and during the term of its investment supported the business with the strategic acquisition of Belcom247 in September 2017, together forming the enlarged Indigo-Belcom Group. Following the successful acquisition, revenues increased from £12 million to a forecast of over £30 million in the current year, with underlying profits increasing from £1.3 million to over £4 million.

South Wales based Indigo-Belcom designs, installs and maintains telecom networks across the globe, enabling customers such as Vodafone, Sky and BT to deliver fixed line, broadband, mobile and other data services to a wide variety of corporate, enterprise and consumer end users.

Indigo-Belcom’s senior executive team is led by CEO Stephen Thompson, who was previously Vice President of Sales at Technicolor and COO of Alcatel Lucent UK & Ireland. Under Stephen’s leadership, the business delivered strong organic and acquisitive growth with year-on-year increases in earnings performance, as well as a continual focus on operational efficiency and growth in long-term Managed Service revenues.

Stephen Thompson, CEO at Indigo-Belcom, added: “The business has grown tremendously in the last two years following the MBO. As well as the acquisition and integration of Belcom247, the Group has grown organically at an exceptional rate, expanded into new state of the art facilities and doubled headcount. It’s been an exciting period and we have welcomed the support and financial backing of both Maven and YFM during this time.”

Colin Granger, Partner at YFM, said: ““It has been a privilege to work alongside the senior team at Indigo-Belcom and be part of the growth journey over the last two years. Indigo is a great case study of the types of businesses and management teams we look to back at YFM. Finally, we would like to thank everyone at Indigo-Belcom for all of their hard work and wish everyone at the company all the very best for the future.”

The exit is the first from YFM’s debut buyout fund which only closed in May 2017 at £46m, delivering a strong early return to investors.