JMAN Group has become the first data specialist to be acknowledged as an adviser on a private equity exit in the United Kingdom, marking a significant development in the role of data support in the investment sector.
The company provided essential data insights and support to Dains Accountants during its sale by Horizon Capital to IK Partners. This achievement underscores the increasing importance of data in facilitating private equity transactions and maximising their value potential.
Dains, which offers extensive accounting and business advisory services to rapidly growing small and medium-sized businesses across the UK and Ireland, appointed JMAN to create a catalogue of crucial data insights in preparation for its sale by Horizon Capital. Since Horizon Capital's investment in 2021, Dains has expanded significantly through ten strategic acquisitions and considerable organic growth. Currently, the company has 765 employees serving over 17,000 clients.
JMAN developed a customised data platform capable of gathering, analysing, and presenting all the necessary financial and commercial metrics required by Dains, Horizon Capital, and other advisers involved. The platform effectively integrated data from previous acquisitions to offer a unified overview of Dains' operations.
This unified data view not only streamlined the exit process to IK Partners but also enabled Horizon Capital to maximise the sale's value by effectively presenting Dains' high performance and future growth prospects. The result of the transaction was an 8x return on invested capital and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 107% for Horizon Capital.
Anush Newman, CEO and Co-Founder of JMAN, stated, "Our work with Dains highlights just how fundamental creating precise and wide-ranging data insights are to the exit process. This is especially true in buy and build scenarios where crucial commercial and operational information can be fragmented across a group and difficult to present to investors. We are incredibly proud to be the first data company to be a named advisor on a deal of this type in the UK."
The recognition of JMAN Group as an adviser in this transaction reflects the growing role of data specialists in private equity deals. By providing a structured and comprehensive data analysis platform, JMAN facilitated a smoother sale process and demonstrated the value of data-driven insights in investment strategies. As data continues to shape financial decision-making, its role in optimising transactions and supporting investment firms is likely to expand further.
