Hg Capital has sold leasing company Zenith to private equity company Bridgepoint for £750m.
Private equity company Hg Capital acquired Zenith and fellow lease company Leasedrive in the space of a month around the beginning of 2014, merging them into Zenith Leasedrive before dropping the latter’s branding early last year.
Zenith was acquired for an undisclosed sum from Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity in January 2014, a month after Hg acquired Leasedrive.
Based in Leeds, Zenith currently operates a fleet of 85,000 vehicles in the UK, and is one of the UK’s top 10 leasing companies in terms of vehicles on its books. It focuses on serving blue-chip companies as a sole supplier.
“Zenith is already best-in-class with a proven business model that has had an unbroken track record of growth over a long period. It benefits from an exceptional management team and, with them, we believe that the business can continue its impressive growth trajectory through its continued focus on customer service, technology and targeted acquisition activity,” said Emma Watford, partner at Bridgepoint.
Tim Buchan, CEO of Zenith, added: “We thank Hg Capital for their contribution and are pleased to welcome Bridgepoint as our new partner. We look forward to working together on our long-term strategy of continued investment in product and system developments.”