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ABN Amro Capital leads £150m MBO of ferry operator Commodore Group

ABN Amro Capital, the private equity arm of Dutch bank ABN Amro, has backed the management buy-out of a ferry company worth around £150m, it announced today.

Commodore Group is a family-owned firm operating ferries between the UK and the Channel Islands and employing 680 staff. The company announced that it was up for sale in March.

The deal was auctioned by Societe Generale and ABN Amro beat off a number of competitors to get it.

The buyout shows that despite the unfavourable conditions in the market, some good deals can be found. Paul Southwell, Director at ABN Amro, said:

‘We are noticing an improvement in the quality of deal flow, and we're optimistic that there will be some interesting deals over the next year. We are firing on all cylinders.'

There has been a marked increase in buy-out activity over the last three or four weeks, possibly signalling that private equity firms feel valuations have now bottomed out and that it is a good time to invest.

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