Wednesday 30th January 2008
Bank of Scotland Corporate has today announced a substantial investment in Quartix Ltd., a leading supplier of vehicle tracking systems.
The Bank's Integrated Finance South team has delivered a comprehensive package of debt and equity, totalling over £12m, in a deal which will see Bank of Scotland take a 20% equity stake in the business. The remaining 80% will continue to be held by the management team, which will continue to hold complete operational and strategic control of Quartix.
Quartix is one of the fastest-growing real-time vehicle tracking companies in the UK. Based in Newtown, Wales, with an office in Cambridge, England, it was established in 2001 and has since gained a reputation for outstanding service at an attractive price.
Through its strategic partnership with Orange, Quartix provides companies in a variety of sectors the ability to track the movement of their vehicles through Quartix's website from any PC, without the need to install software. This ease of use, combined with reliability, has helped Quartix capture significant market share.
The deal was led by Owen Sennitt, Director of Integrated Finance supported by Ben Stephenson,Fiona Gibson and David Lock. Commenting on the deal – the third completed by Integrated Finance South in recent months, following the debt and equity packages provided to Maynard & Harris Plastics and Charterhouse Print Management – Owen said:
"Quartix is an outstanding business whose recent growth rate is due to the drive, ambition, and vision of Andy Walters and his management team. This is an exciting investment for us, and our funding package will provide a solid platform for future expansion."
Andy Walters, Managing Director of QuartixLtd., said:
"We're delighted to have formed this partnership with Bank of Scotland Corporate, and are confident about the prospects for future growth. We'll be aiming to deliver an even better service to our clients in order to consolidate our position as the supplier of choice to many companies using vehicle tracking."
Notes to Editors:
About Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance
Bank of Scotland Corporate, part of HBOS plc, has a reputation for excellence in the provision of corporate finance, delivering innovative funding solutions across a range of markets. Bank of Scotland Corporate employs over 8,300 employees. With experience across many areas of corporate finance, including Integrated Finance, Joint Ventures, Structured Finance, Acquisition Finance, Infrastructure Finance and Housing Finance, Bank of Scotland can draw on an expert pool of professionals with proven track records. Since launching its ground-breaking Integrated Finance unit back in 2000, the Bank has transacted over 100 deals with a total funding in excess of £10 billion. Today Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance provides funding to more mid-market MBOs than any other equity funder in the UK by providing a unique one-stop financing solution which meets all the funding requirements for a business undergoing a transaction.
In addition to its strong start to 2008, Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance completed 12 deals in 2007, including Keepmoat, Polypipe, David Lloyd Leisure, M&H Plastics, Ainscough Crane Hire, Lambert Smith Hampton, Fishers and Charterhouse.
About Quartix
Quartix was founded in 2001 by four industry professionals who had over 80 years combined experience in systems design, telemetry, embedded computing, communications and database design and implementation. Using the best in mapping systems, location databases, communications technology and Internet service providers Quartix set out to create a system that was easier to use than those on the market. This also brought the benefit of ensuring that the system would be accessible from standard browser and e-mail programs. More than 1500 companies are currently using the Quartix vehicle tracking system and this is expanding rapidly.
