'It was a rollercoaster year' - Agilitas CEO Lynn on leading an MBO during a pandemic

Josh Budd
clock • 2 min read

Market analysts suggested Agilitas was valued at £90m in a secondary buyout at the end of last year

2020 was an "emotional rollercoaster" for Agilitas according to its CEO Shaun Lynn, who led a management buyout of the business in the middle of the Covid pandemic.

Agilitas changed hands in November via an MBO led by Lynn and the backing of private equity house Perwyn.

The secondary MBO saw existing investor NVM exit the business after initially investing £6.4m in Agilitas as part of a previous MBO in 2014.

In an interview with CRN Shaun Lynn confirmed that the Agilitas valuation was a significant sum, with Agilitas delivering its previous investor NVM an 8.5x return on its investment.

"Phil Doye to his credit when he did the first Kelway-CDW deal, he gave their investor Core Capital a 9x return on their investment. We didn't quite get that, but we did eight and a half and we did it in a pandemic," he laughed.

The Agilitas CEO said that conducting an MBO during the Covid crisis and multiple national lockdowns was a hugely challenging experience.

"Going through selling a business which is usually a 9 to 12-month process, but doing that through lock downs and a global pandemic was a struggle. And doing all of that with all of the challenges that the pandemic brought - hiring new people and having that responsibility for the people you have hired already - we didn't want to let anyone down," he said.

"When we launched the MBO in July, we were told it was not the right time because there is a lot of uncertainty in the market, and private equity are fixing their portfolios because a lot of them are generalists and are in lots of different sectors affected by the pandemic.

"We ended up with over 25 serious offers," he added.

Lynn said that his firm chose Perwyn because of its long-term view on the Agilitas business. He hinted at plans to expand Agilitas into new countries - mentioning the US and to the east of Germany - with Perwyn's backing.

"We were really impressed with Perwyn," he said. "They're a family business and we found there was a real cultural fit with them, where people really matter."

At the start of this year, Agilitas announced its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2020. Revenues grew by 15 per cent to £14m, while EBITDA shot up by 22 per cent to £3.8m.

When the pandemic first hit Europe in March, one of Agilitas' largest customers closed up shop, said Lynn, which was a worrying sign of how the pandemic might play out for the firm.

But despite the pandemic, Agilitas is expecting to post a hugely positive financial year for the period ending 31 March 2021.

Lynn said he's expecting revenues to land between £20m and £22m and EBITDA to reach just shy of £8m - double what it achieved in the year before.

"We could have done bigger, but we could have done a lot less, too," said Lynn.

You may also like
Channel leaders brimming with confidence about industry's future, Agilitas study finds

Research

Confidence about future runs high, despite challenges around AI and culture

clock 14 March 2024 • 2 min read
CRN ON: Data, employee and customer experience with Agilitas

Reseller

The event covered the key pillars of a total experience approach, featuring speakers from Agilitas, Humans Robertson, Sapphire Systems, Softcat, and Trustmarque among others

clock 13 December 2023 • 2 min read
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023

Vendor

A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies

clock 08 December 2023 • 6 min read

Sign up to our newsletter

The best news, stories, features and photos from the day in one perfectly formed email.

More on Sponsored

WATCH: Channel awards Q&A with QuoStar CEO Robert Rutherford

WATCH: Channel awards Q&A with QuoStar CEO Robert Rutherford

Rutherford sits down with CRN and talks what being shortlisted in the biggest channel event of the year means to him

Kelsey Rees
clock 24 November 2023 • 1 min read

Industry Voice: Why forward-thinking partnerships are essential to SME success

Huawei EBG
clock 16 November 2023 • 4 min read
Channel Awards: Q&A with Jamf

Channel Awards: Q&A with Jamf

Jamf channel sales manager Abdul Terry tells CRN about the biggest challenge of 2023

Kelsey Rees
clock 14 November 2023 • 3 min read

Highlights

Staff & Salaries 2022

Staff & Salaries 2022

A snapshot of pay and headcount trends in the UK channel

Doug Woodburn
clock 09 March 2022 • 1 min read
Midwich CEO on Nimans acquisition, 2021 results and return to pre-pandemic levels

Midwich CEO on Nimans acquisition, 2021 results and return to pre-pandemic levels

Stephen Fenby talks to CRN after Midwich’s 2021 results in which profitability exceeded pre-pandemic levels

Josh Budd
clock 08 March 2022 • 3 min read
4 more vendors suspend sales in Russia following Ukraine invasion

4 more vendors suspend sales in Russia following Ukraine invasion

IBM and Microsoft are among a number of vendors which have also announced that they will halt sales in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

clock 08 March 2022 • 3 min read