August makes 6x on Durrants secondary

August Equity has made its first exit since changing its name from Kleinwort Capital by selling Discovery Group to Exponent Private Equity in an £82m secondary buyout, generating a 6x return. Discovery, which trades under the name of Durrants Media Monitoring, monitors around 6,000 print, broadcast and online sources for public relations (PR) managers. Kleinwort Benson Equity Partners backed a £14m MBI by CEO Stephen White in 2000.

Since then Durrants, which was founded in 1880, has increased its revenues from £7m to over £20m with profits increasing almost six-fold. In 2001 the company raised £2.5m to fund the development of its main technology platform and in 2004 it acquired Xtreme News for £7m.