Bahrain’s Investcorp sells industrial supplies firm

Bahraini alternative investment manager Investcorp has completed the sale of a Europe-focused industrial supplies distribution firm.

Investcorp said in a statement on Monday that ownership of IPH Group would be transferred to PAI Partners, a Paris-based private equity firm and would create €210m (US$273m) of realisation proceeds for Investcorp and its clients.

Since acquiring IPH in 2006, Investcorp has seen the firm triple sales to €860m and grown EBITDA from €12m to €62m.

“Our ability to secure a healthy return from the sale of IPH Group despite the ongoing turbulence in the euro zone market is evidence of our ability to identify appropriate exit opportunities,” said Mohammed Al-Shroogi, president, Gulf business, at Investcorp.

IPH distributes a large range of industrial supplies across the European continent and has access to networks in countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania.

Last month, Investcorp bought a controlling stake in Scotland-based oil fields services provider Hydrasun. The deal, estimated at US$150m to US$300m, took Investcorp’s Gulf Opportunity’s spend close to its full deployment of US$1bn.

Investcorp last year sold truck parts distributor FleetPride to private equity firm TPG for more than US$1bn.

The investment management firm as of June 30 2012 had US$11.5bn in assets under management.

In the first half of its more recent financial year, Investcorp made a net profit of US$39.2m, compared with US$5.2m a year previous.