Albion Ventures and Maven Capital Partners sell joint investment in Lab M Holdings to US food safety company Neogen Corp

10th September, London - Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”) and Albion Ventures LLP (“Albion”), two of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, today jointly announce the successful sale of their investment in Lab M Holdings, a developer, manufacturer and supplier of microbiological culture media and diagnostic systems, to Neogen Corporation.

Lancashire-based Lab M is a leading provider of microbial testing and diagnostic products servicing the global food, water, industrial and clinical testing markets.  Employing some 35 staff at its accredited facility in Heywood, Greater Manchester, the company’s wide range of dehydrated culture media is routinely used in microbiology laboratories around the world for food industry testing. 

The original Lab M investment was made by Quester VCT Plc and Guinness Flight Venture Capital Trust PLC (“Guinness Flight”) in 1998 when they backed the founder-chairman, Colin Goodwille, with development capital for a small group of microbiology businesses acquired over the previous five years. Maven assumed responsibility for the investment when it took over the contract for Guinness Flight (now Maven Income and Growth 4 PLC) in 2008 and similarly Albion assumed responsibility for the investment when it took over the investment management of Kings Arms Yard VCT Plc (formerly Quester VCT) in 2011.

Since then Maven and Albion have played a major role, alongside Colin Goodwille, in driving significant growth through the acquisition of state-of-the-art freehold manufacturing facilities, improved production management, the appointment of a new Managing Director in Ian Morris and Finance Director in Paul Smith.  These initiatives have had a transformational effect on the quality and attractiveness of Lab M’s products and customer base. 

The support provided by Maven and Albion has helped the business deliver consistently strong financial results, driven by sustained growth in existing markets, significant customer wins, and expansion into new territories. Since 2010 Lab M’s annual turnover has grown from £3.5m to £4.8m currently and profits have more than doubled. The sale will return £1.4 million to the Maven Income and Growth VCT 4, delivering a return of 2.3x. Kings Arms Yard VCT will receive total proceeds of £2.2m, delivering a return of 3.6x during the period under Albion’s management.

Will Fraser-Allen, Deputy Managing Partner at Albion said: “We are delighted with the successful sale of our investment in Lab M.  During our involvement we were able to play a key role in ensuring that Lab M successfully transformed its business, resulting in its current strong performance. Following a competitive sale process we were able to secure an attractive return for our investors, thereby enabling the Lab M team to continue on their growth trajectory.”

Andrew Symmonds, Portfolio Manager at Maven said: "Lab M has grown into a significant producer of high quality products during the time of our investment, expanding into new markets, developing innovative new products and delivering significant growth. This sale, which has generated a healthy investor return, will allow the business to continue its growth strategy."

Colin Goodwille, Chairman of Lab M Holdings said: “We have enjoyed a highly productive partnership with the Albion and Maven teams and this has been instrumental in bringing about the success that Lab M has enjoyed in recent years.  Neogen is an excellent new home for Lab M which will enable the business to continue going from strength to strength.”

Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen joins Balderton as General Partner

Lars brings growth and mobile experience from Uber and Dropbox

London, 10th September 2015: Balderton Capital, Europe’s leading venture capital firm, is delighted to announce that Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen is joining the company as General Partner. Lars has held senior roles at some of the world’s most successful fast-growth technology companies – including Uber and Dropbox – and has industry-leading experience in growing innovative businesses via mobile channels. While at Dropbox, Lars also served as an advisor to Whatsapp prior to the company’s acquisition by Facebook.

Lars’ role at Balderton will see him leading early-stage investments in new businesses, while also sharing his experience and insights across Balderton’s portfolio of companies. He has spent 15 years at sector-leading mobile technology businesses, having worked with Voicesignal, Skyhook Wireless, Ness Technologies, and T9 Tegic, all of which were acquired.

Lars joins Balderton from Uber, where he has been working as Vice President Mobile at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. At Uber he helped to forge strategic partnerships with global telco companies. During his tenure, he saw the company’s service footprint grow to 59 countries.

Before Uber, Lars was an early employee at Dropbox, and part of the business leadership team – during his time at the company its user base grew from a few million to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Daniel Waterhouse, General Partner at Balderton Capital said: "It is with great pleasure that we welcome Lars to Balderton Capital as a General Partner. Having led mobile strategy for sector-defining, high-growth technology companies in Uber and Dropbox, Lars brings a rare insight and experience from Silicon Valley to the companies in our portfolio.

“At Balderton, it is our mission to back the very best global technology businesses being born in Europe, and to work alongside the founders to help them realise their undoubted potential. We are delighted that Lars shares in this vision and his unparalleled expertise and enthusiastic commitment to the European tech scene will help us uncover, back and support the very best founders in the region."

Lars said: "I couldn’t be more excited to move back from Silicon Valley to Europe. I believe mobile technology has changed the entrepreneurial ecosystem and levels of aspiration in Europe, which will lead to an explosion of successful European startups playing on a global scale. I’m thrilled to join the Balderton team, and to bring the passion I have for technology to the innovative and burgeoning European tech industry"

While working with companies on the West Coast, Lars initiated ground-breaking strategic alliances with cross-regional conglomerates around the world, while growing user bases and developing freemium monetisation strategies. Along the way he acquired experience of scaling at high speed across business, engineering and product teams.

During Lars’ time at Dropbox, where he was Head of Mobile, he co-invented and patented a new way of deeply integrating services with handset manufacturers and mobile operators. This partnership model is now used by companies from startups to Fortune 500 firms, and, in the past decade, more than a billion mobile handsets have shipped with integrated mobile services as a result.

Lars holds degrees from London Business School, Oxford University, and King’s College London, and has served in the Royal Danish Guards. He is a Danish national, grew up across Africa, and speaks five languages.

Next reassures investors with positive first half results

·         Results revealed a 7.1% rise in pre-tax profits

·         Next reassured the market over the impact of the higher minimum wage

·         The Share Centre recommends Next as a ‘hold’ but prefers M&S in the sector

As Next reports its first half figures this morning, Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, explains what they mean for investors.

“Retail group Next’s first half figures were well received by the market this morning. The company reported a 2.7% rise in sales to £1.9bn, with full price sales rising by 3.5% which was slightly better than expected. Pre-tax profit for the period increased by 7.1% to £347.1m and the interim dividend was raised 6% to 53p.

“Within the report Next said it expects the government’s new living wage to lead to a £2m increase in its wage bill next year and ultimately to add £27m a year by 2020. It is important to note that the group has said it believes that is manageable, but prices might have to rise 1% if there are no improvements in productivity. Sales and profit guidance for the full year were unchanged and the company expects better sales in the second half partly due to weaker comparative figures from last year. Today’s news shows Next continues to perform well and will have reassured investors that the impact of the new higher minimum wage should not be significant for the company.”

“We continue to recommend Next as a ‘hold’ for medium risk investors seeking a balance of growth and income. The company continues to expand its stores and online presence and, investors will note, Next is returning a significant amount of cash to investors in the form of special dividends. With much of this already reflected in the shares, we prefer Marks & Spencer in the sector due to its more attractive valuation.”