Bridgepoint on a roll

Bridgepoint has realised its second investment in a month with the sale of Artform International, a point-of-purchase display product manufacturer in a deal totalling £48m. This follows the £24.7m sale of Walters Hexagon Group to Anixter International.

Bridgepoint originally backed Artform in a €61m institutional buyout in 1997. The return on the investment is undisclosed. Founded in Loughborough over 25 years ago, Artform designs, develops and manufactures point of purchase display products mainly in the cosmetics, leisure and confectionery markets.

To date this year, Bridgepoint has returned €200m to its investors and completed six new investments from its €2bn Bridgepoint Europe II fund. Further exits this year include the sale of Huure, a Finnish refrigeration company to Kaupthing Bank and the sale of Lloyd Werft, a ship repair and conversion specialist in Germany.