Gresham Exits ANSA 12 months After Backing MBO

Gresham today announces that it has made a successful exit from ANSA, a national claims management business that offers a fully integrated service to deal with insurers' drainage claims. The move comes just 12 months after Gresham provided the equity backing for the management buy-out of the company. Gresham made a return of 3x its initial investment and an IRR of 200%.

Gresham has realised its investment in ANSA through a sale to Mavinwood Plc, AIM listed support services business. The deal was handled by Andy Marsh and Ken Lawrence for Gresham.

ANSA operates from centres in Oldham , Wetherby and Bournemouth , providing claims management and surveying services of drainage systems to insurance companies. In the twelve months since its initial investment, ANSA has grown its claims management business by 50%.

The existing management team will remain with the business post completion and have re- invested in Mavinwood Plc. They will continue with the same strategy for ANSA in developing additional service offerings for its customer base.

Simon Maude, Managing Director of ANSA, commented: "This is an excellent opportunity for our business. It provides a platform for us to create and deliver greater added value to our claims management solutions. We are very much looking forward to working with the Mavinwood team to develop our service proposition for our clients and their customers."

Steve Watkins, CEO of ANSA, added: "This is a great opportunity for ANSA. Our relationship with Gresham over the last twelve months has been excellent and without doubt, has been one of the key elements in creating a springboard to take the business to the next level of the business' development. We believe that Mavinwood are the right long term partners for the business and will allow us to take the business into a new dimension."

Andy Marsh, Director at Gresham 's Manchester office, added: "We feel that Mavinwood is a very good home for ANSA and its management team going forward. The excellent service culture of ANSA will be maintained as the management will stay with the business post completion. Needless to say we are delighted with the investment."

The sale of ANSA is the latest in a series of successful exits for Gresham - including the London Stock Exchange listing of office2office; the sale of Cooltrader and most recently the sale of MSS to Invacare Inc of the USA .

ANSA was advised by Andy Westbrook and Ian Scapens of Deloittes and Nicola Frost and Sean Fitzpatrick of Pinsents.