Better Capital offloads Fairline for modest consideration

Better Capital PCC Limited has announced that the General Partner of BECAP Fund LP has sold the entire issued share capital of Fairline Boats Limited to a newly formed special purpose acquisition vehicle affiliated with the Wessex Bristol group of companies for a modest deferred consideration. Fairline was valued at £13.5m at the last 2009 Fund valuation as at 31 March 2015.

They will have to announce exactly what “modest” means in due course but it looks like there will be a sizeable hit to the net asset value. They say “a further description of the transaction will be available in due course”.

Fairline specialises in the design, engineering, manufacture and distribution of luxury boats.  The business was jointly acquired by the 2009 Fund and West Register Investments Limited in July 2011.  Under Better Capital’s ownership, there has been substantial investment.  The General Partner, having consideration of the optimal outcomes for Fairline and the 2009 Cell Shareholders, has agreed to the sale of Fairline to Wessex Bristol.  The buyer has agreed to provide further funding into Fairline and is committed to taking Fairline on its next stage of growth, leveraging on the strong following the brand still enjoys and the new 53-foot model launched recently at the Southampton Boat Show.

UPDATE 3 December 2015

Fairline has gone into administration. It turned out that it was still on Better Capital’s books at the end of September 2015 with a value ascribed to it of £2m. There may be a further write down of Better Capital’s net asset value.

BCAP : Better Capital offloads Fairline for modest consideration