Ocean Media windfall for Ion Equity

Dublin-based Ion Equity and private clients of Anglo Irish Bank have shared in a £60 million (€86 million) windfall from the sale of UK-based Ocean Media Group, just 15 months after acquiring the firm.

Ocean Media, which is involved in exhibitions, conferencing and magazine publishing, was acquired from Trinity Mirror by a management-led consortium backed by Ion and the Anglo Irish Bank clients in July 2006 for £41.2 million.

It was sold on Tuesday to European buyout firm AAC Capital Partners for slightly more than £100 million, with debt for the deal provided by Anglo Irish Bank.

According to documents filed with the Companies Office, Ion and Anglo's clients each own about 35 per cent of Ocean Media.

The documents indicate that Pegasus Nominees - Anglo Irish Bank's private clients - invested €10.9 million to acquire their stake. They are believed to have received more than three times that amount from the sale.

Company filings indicate that Ion, which managed the buyout and arranged funding for the consortium, invested only about €200,000 for its stake in Ocean Media.

Based on the respective shareholdings, Ion's profit from the deal would be about £20 million.

Ocean Media produces magazines and organises exhibitions and conferences in three sectors - social housing, weddings and bridal, and leisure and outdoor.

Formerly known as Inside Communications, the company has an annual turnover of £29 million.

It is understood that its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation this year will be £10 million, a 25 per cent increase on the level of July 2006.

The Irish-led consortium expanded the business over the past 15 months by acquiring exhibition businesses in Germany and the Netherlands.

Ocean's managing director Dave Moran and finance chief Simon Malcolm owned 29 per cent of the company between them, with about 0.5 per cent held by other executives at the group.

Mr Moran and Mr Malcolm are set to share a £17.4 million windfall from the deal and will leave the company on completion of the sale.

The pair were brought in to the ailing group six years ago, turning it around in the intervening period.

The deal represents a spectacular return for both Ion, which is led by financier Neil O'Leary, and Anglo's private clients.

Ion is one of Ireland's most active private equity groups. It was behind Topaz Energy's takeover of the Shell and Statoil networks of forecourts in Ireland and the Bandon-based alternative energy and business services group SWS.

It is also a bidder for the Whitegate oil refinery in Cork and has made an unsolicited bid for the €200 million consumer foods division of Reox, a Dairygold spin-off.

AAC Capital Partners grew out of Dutch financial group ABN Amro.