Collingwood has advised the management team of GovNet, the UK’s leading provider of public sector events on their recent management buyout. The buyout follows a successful Scaleup engagement where Collingwood, beginning in 2022, helped take the team through a complex restructuring and portfolio optimisation to focus the business on its best and most scalable products. The team at GovNet are now looking forward to executing an exciting growth plan which includes strategic acquisitions.

GovNet is an award-winning events provider and a crucial platform for the public sector to connect with solution providers across Education, Healthcare and Technology within Core Civil Service. It supports communities to learn, connect, and deliver world-class public services.

Collingwood’s Scaleup advisers helped CEO, James Tucker, and his senior team to develop and execute an ambitious growth and business transformation strategy, culminating in a successful MBO, led by Collingwood’s Corporate Finance team.

Collingwood’s Scaleup work focused on the highest priority value drivers to GovNet, specifically:

  • Quality of Earnings 
    • KPI focus, ensuring that management sought to drive the business based on KPIs and understood what good looked like from an industry perspective.
    • Event portfolio optimisation, thereby allowing revenue teams to drive AOV better with sponsors, exhibitors and training customers.
  • Fast predictable growth
    • Creating product plans for core verticals underpinned by detailed insight work; supporting the senior leadership team to transition to new business models which increased meaningful interaction between decision makers and vendors including 1-2-1
  • Transaction Readiness
    • Implementing governance processes to prepare the business for external investment and acquisitions in the future.
    • Preparing the business for an intensive investment process with multiple possible avenues including debt backed or private equity backed MBO and simultaneous first major acquisition.

The Collingwood Corporate Finance team provided full lead advisory support to execute the debt-backed MBO led by James Tucker. The CEO, management team and business were guided through the entire process, maximising and protecting value. This process included:

  • setting and executing the deal strategy bespoke to the business and the CEO’s aspirations.
  • presenting the business and the opportunity in high quality marketing materials.
  • curating a shortlist of key investors and debt providers, with the greatest rationale to maximise the terms of the investment.
  • and tightly managing the competing demands and priorities of a multi-party, multi-workstream process.

Through a combination of transaction experience and sector expertise, Collingwood secured a successful management buyout at the best possible terms for the CEO and his team.

James Tucker, CEO of GovNet commented, “GovNet has been through a period of rapid change over the last four years. I’m from fund management not events so Collingwood’s industry knowledge and guidance on both the advisory and transactions sides has proven invaluable. This transaction marks a line in the sand for us between the old GovNet and what we have become. The teams here deserve the amazing opportunity this creates for their effort and dedication. I’m very lucky we have incredible people working on some really purposeful product and I’m so excited to see where they take us over the coming years.“

This transaction underlines Collingwood’s mission to support ambitious leaders and management teams of successful  B2B media businesses to help them scale, transform and secure premium value through a sale to trade, private equity, or other capital event.

Daniel Pitchford commented from the Scaleup side of Collingwood, “GovNet has an outstanding brand and we were delighted to support the management team to refocus the business to better enable its growth, and its underlying mission to improve public sector services.”

Adam Shaw of Collingwood said, “What James has achieved with his restructuring and now MBO has put the business in a great place to grow the business organically and through acquisitions. We look forward to working with GovNet on their future growth plans.”

About GovNet

GovNet is a culture and data driven events and training business serving the UK public sector. We help suppliers of products and services who want to win and retain public sector business. We reduce the pain of identifying and accessing their target audience by connecting them with leaders and practitioners who are responsible for procuring solutions. We help education and train leaders and practitioners who want to comply, improve and excel in the delivery of public services by curating the best content and solutions and connecting them with each other.

About Collingwood 

We advise ambitious leaders of independent media companies, enabling them to scale, sell, or seek investment. With dedicated Scaleup and Corporate Finance teams, we’re equipped to support you, whatever your ultimate goal. 

When we work with you we reveal where the value lies in your business, help you to focus on what matters, and support you in making hard decisions. 

We do this by sharing the insights of experts who’ve been building and selling businesses for years. By providing an objective sounding-board. And by drawing on our tried and tested value creation methodology.

Together, we’ll transform the value of your business.

Contact

Jessica Bradley

Senior Marketing Manager

Collingwood

jessica.bradley@collingwood.group