James Cowper Kreston advise LDC on its investment in Amberjack

James Cowper Kreston are pleased to announce the completion of LDC’s investment in Amberjack. The team acted as buy side advisors to LDC during the transaction.

Amberjack is the UK’s market leading specialist in designing and delivering Early Careers and large scale recruitment programmes for blue chip organisations. Based in Berkshire, Amberjack provides its specialist services and software products to many of the UK’s largest employers, with a particular focus on Early Careers candidates - specifically graduates, school leavers and apprenticeship programmes. It uses proprietary cloud-based software tools to automate processes, manage application volumes and provide data driven insights to help assess and select candidates and also provide a professional experience to candidates. Its clients include major organisations such as Unilever, GSK, Mars, Network Rail, BP, Heathrow Airport, Virgin Media Liberty Global and members of the Big Four.

LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, has invested £17.6million of equity to support a management buy-out and accelerate the business’s growth strategy, including providing capital to support investment in the software and technology propositions and help the business to explore complementary acquisitions to broaden its service offering.

Cynthia Bostock, Chief Executive at Amberjack, said: “Amberjack’s growth is testament to the fantastic service our teams provide to all of our clients and the increasing sophistication required in large recruitment campaigns and specifically for junior talent.

“We’ve grown Amberjack to become the undisputed market leader in our sector and are looking to expand our service offering even further with LDC’s investment. The support of an established private equity partner with comprehensive experience in helping firms that provide technology services will help us accelerate our ambitious growth strategy.”

Chris Baker, Investment Director at LDC in the South, said: “Amberjack offers a market-leading proposition that enables companies to be more sophisticated with their Early Careers and high volume recruitment campaigns and attract, identify and hire the best talent for their business.

“With Cynthia, Sophie and Cassie at the helm, it’s no surprise that the business is growing with increasing momentum and has built an enviable client list. We look forward to working with the team to continue to build on their exceptional achievements to date.”

Stuart Williams, Corporate Finance Partner at James Cowper Kreston said: “It has been a pleasure to advise LDC on their investment in Amberjack. The business has both an enviable client base and reputation in the market and with LDC’s backing I am sure this will continue. I wish Cynthia, Sophie and Cassie luck on the next stage of their journey.”