Close Brothers Private Equity (“CBPE”) has achieved almost four times its original investment in Hillarys Blinds following a secondary management buyout financed by Change Capital Partners (“Change”), the investment vehicle headed by Luc Vandevelde. Nottingham based Hillarys is the UK’s largest supplier of domestic made-to-measure window blinds, manufacturing around 1 million individual blinds per year.

CBPE funded the original £50m MBO/MBI from founder Tony Hillary in May 2001 together with debt funding from RBS. Executive Chairman, Mike Snapes whom CBPE had introduced, exits alongside CBPE, leaving the incumbent team of James Nicholson, Mick Shanks, Fiona Ferguson and David Burke as ongoing shareholders alongside Change. James Nicholson becomes the new Group CEO and Managing Director.

The investment has been a tremendous success for CBPE. It invested when sales and profits were £55m and £6.5million respectively; during the MBO/MBI team’s tenure, growth has been substantial and the figures for the current year to September 2004 should see sales of £85m and EBIT approaching £14m.

The growth has been achieved by exploiting Hillarys market leadership of the made-to-measure blinds segment, fuelled by rapidly growing exposure of home interest programmes in the media. The team predict continued strong growth for the foreseeable future, supported by forecast market growth of 6%pa.*

Commenting on the exit, CBPE’s Simon Wildig, who managed the investment with Mark Perryman, said: “Working with the Hillarys team over the past three years has been a real pleasure. The group has a fantastic business model, which the team has refined, leaving it well positioned for the next phase of growth. I hope that Change’s ownership proves to be as successful and enjoyable as ours.”

James Nicholson, CEO and Managing Director of Hillarys Group, commented: "Our first three years under private equity ownership has been a great experience and we look forward to continuing this model of ownership with Change Capital Partners. We have been delighted to have worked with CBPE over the past few years and wish them every success in the future. We look forward to the challenge of taking Hillarys to the next level and are excited to be working alongside Change Capital Partners with their fresh approaches and new ideas."

* AMA Research report 2002

- Ends -

For more information contact:

Close Brothers Private Equity
Simon Wildig
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7065 1122
Or email: simon.wildig@cbpel.com


This press release has been issued by Close Brothers Private Equity.