Gresham makes successful exit from frozen food retailer Cooltrader

Gresham, the regionally based mid-market private equity firm, announces that it has made a successful exit from the frozen food retailer Cooltrader by selling its 35% stake to Baugur.

Gresham initially invested in a £11.9m rollout funding package in June 2004. This included funding for the successful acquisition of Poundfreeze, a chain of eight stores in the West Midlands. The exit transaction represents an IRR of 117%.

Following Gresham's investment, Cooltrader made a strong start in rolling out its store opening plans and saw excellent growth in individual store sales of around 20% in the final quarter of 2004.

Christian Bruning, a director at Gresham and also a member of the board at Cooltrader, said: "We have worked very closely with Cooltrader since our investment and are very pleased with this deal. It vindicates our original faith in the strength of the business and its management team".

The exit was managed by Christian Bruning and Neil Scragg from Gresham's dedicated Portfolio team.

The sale of Cooltrader is the latest in a series of successful exits for Gresham including the London Stock Exchange Listing of office2office; the sale of Penn Pharmaceuticals to Celgene Corporation; and the sale of 1st Credit to Bridgepoint. The sale of Cooltrader is the first exit from the Gresham III fund which closed in 2004.