In brief mid-market

SR Technics, a Switzerland-based aircraft repair company, has hired Rothschild and Wyvern Partners as advisers for its planned €1bn flotation to provide an exit for its private equity owners.

UK-listed private equity firm 3i and Star Capital, an infrastructure investments specialist, paid €425m for SR Technics in 2002 after parent Swissair became bankrupt.

SR’s full year Ebitda was SFr146m in 2005, up 16% on the year before, on revenues of SFr1.4bn.

0Ambi-Rad, a UK manufacturer of radiant tube heating systems, has undergone a management buyout supported by Barclays Bank. The total value of the transaction was not disclosed. Ambi-Rad employs 200 staff and generates an annual turnover of £21m.

The management team was advised by Andy Moore and Gareth Iley of Clearwater Corporate Finance, with legal advice from Richard Cliff at George Green & Co. Bank debt was arranged by Tamiko Jones at Barclays Bank. The vendors were advised by Joanne Bligh at Browne Jacobson.

03i, the UK-listed private equity company, has hired Akshaya Bhargava to head its new business process outsourcing (BPO) division.

3i is aiming to focus on buyouts of up to US$1bn or growth capital investments up to US$150m within the US$170bn global BPO market. It will focus initially on companies with minimum revenues of €100m, mainly in the financial services sector in the UK, Germany, the US and India.

BPO companies carry out the traditional back office functions of finance, accounting, human resources and procurement services as well as specialist sector outsourcing.

Bhargava said: “We believe that BPO is a major global trend that can have a transformational impact across several industries.”

Having spent 22 years at Citibank, Bhargava has most recently been the chief executive of Progeon, the BPO subsidiary of Infosys, India’s second largest IT services company.

In April, Citigroup sold its 23% stake in Progeon to Infosys for US$115.1m, after Bhargava left the company in March.

0Gresham, a UK-based mid-market buyout firm, has hired Mike O’Brien as an investment executive in London.

Previously, O’Brien worked for UK retailer Computacenter in the strategy and corporate development team handling its M&A. He started his career as a strategy consultant initially with Kaiser Associates and latterly with OC&C Strategy Consultants, both in London.