Taxi Driver Online

Carlyle Group plans to auction Addison Lee for £800 million



Carlyle Group, the private equity company that bought a majority stake in Addison Lee for £300 million last year, is planning to sell the private hire giant on after just 18 months after receiving “unsolicited offers” for the business.

The sale is expected through an auction, with the highest bidder expected to pay up to £800m for the minicab firm, which operates around 4,000 cars in London. This would provide a major return for Carlyle, as well as a further windfall for the Griffin family, which founded the company nearly 40 years ago.

Carlyle is believed to have invited other private equity firms, including BC Partners, CVC Capital and Charterhouse to bid. Carlyle has not confirmed the move, and analysts are surprised by the speed at which the private equity company has moved to sell the business on – normally, investments are retained for around four or five years.

But recent strong financial results from Addison Lee may have forced the decision – Addison Lee announced trebled net profits to £16m in its latest financial year, with turnover rising to £172m.

The business was founded by former taxi driver John Griffin with a single car in 1975, and now carries more than 10m passengers a year in London. Addison Lee has launched services in Paris and New York and plans to launch in other cities. John Griffin recently stood down as chairman of the company, though son Liam remains as CEO.

source: http://www.prodrivermags.com/news/389-c ... 00-million

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

How on earth can a business with £16 million profit be worth £800 million?

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Grandad,

Worth even less I'd have thought with UBER breathing down their neck.

with turnover at £172 million and 4,000 cars, that makes a turnover of £43,000 per vehicle. and the profit from this £43,000 was just £400 per vehicle. Something doesn't seem right.

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Grandad,

They also own City Sprint Couriers which I think is a FTSE Company. There'll be other income streams which won't be divulged.

Selective and clever accounting minimising their tax burden perchance...yet potential buyers will understand that small profits does not actually mean small profits in big business speak.

probably transferring their profits to liechtenstein where a single vehicle mysteriously generates £40 million profit

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It's not.

But people outside of the trade have a crazy view of how much the trade is actually worth.

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IDFIMH

Who..Uber?

Maybe not Uber themselves, but defo the folks ploughing billions into them.

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IDFIMH

I think this is the same as our customers who think it only costs us pennies to run our cars and that we a raking it in unless you have actually worked in the trade then you don't realise the costs involved

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

That equates to a ROCE of 2% which is in line with the market at the moment I believe.