Matrix splashes £5m on stake in headhunter RDL
BUYOUT specialist Matrix Private Equity Partners (MPEP) is to splash £5m on an invesment in RDL Corporation, a European recruiting firm specialising in the pharmaceutical and IT sectors.
MPEP will be taking a minority stake in the firm that will see one of its partners, Iain Livingston, take over as chairman of RDL.
The Woking and London-based recruitment company currently employs 70 people but will now step up plans to expand.
MD Stuart Britton says: “We want to establish ourselves as the niche market leader in pharma and IT recruitment.” Since 1992, RDL has found staff for over 300 companies.
MPEP’s Jonathan Gregory says the aim is to bring in business from outside the UK as well as domestically: “Growth is expected from geographical expansion as RDL secures an increasing amount of business from both the UK and Western Europe,” he says.
The buyout comes during a year of energetic mergers and acquisitions among large-cap firms, although the private equity business has been quiet.
Prominent private equity figures in the industry such as Better Capital’s Jon Moulton have suggested that there is more bad news to come before the situation improves.