Next Wave Partners has sold Fox International to Mayfair Equity Partners

Lincoln International (“Lincoln”), a leading independent mid-market investment bank, has completed the sale of a majority stake in Fox International (“Fox”), to Mayfair Equity Partners (“Mayfair”) at a company valuation of £50 million. The sale represents an IRR of over 150% and a 3.1x money multiple for Next Wave Partners (“Next Wave”), who retain a significant minority shareholding.

Fox is based in Hainault, Essex, and was founded by Clifford Fox in 1964. It sells over 3,000 products in more than 30 countries and focuses on product leadership and innovation in the supply of fishing equipment for anglers globally.

Fishing is one of the world’s biggest sports, with an estimated 350 million anglers worldwide spending £9 billion per annum. In the U.K., a recent Sport England survey cited fishing as being the country’s number one sport with 2.9 million active participants, 600,000 more than play football.

The investment in Fox provides additional capital to help it accelerate growth in new and existing markets. The company’s core markets today are the U.K., Germany, France and The Netherlands.

Jonathan Brod, Next Wave’s Managing Partner, said, “We are delighted to continue our investment in one the world’s leading fishing tackle providers. Our ongoing investment will enable future acquisitions, continued investment into product R&D and geographic expansion, further enhancing Fox’s market-leading position. Next Wave had many options to choose from, but the Mayfair team stood out clearly as the best and most added value partner for this next chapter in Fox’s development.”

David Algar, Chief Executive of Fox, commented, “We are really pleased to have Mayfair join Next Wave as investors in Fox, and that they both share our vision for strong and sustainable growth. Fox has been an incredible success story over the years because we endeavour to understand and really meet the needs and aspirations of the specialist angler. With the combined resources of Mayfair and Next Wave, we expect to take our success to a whole new level.”

Lincoln acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Fox, working closely with its shareholders and the management team throughout the sale process. This included providing advisory expertise and managing the preparatory, marketing, negotiation and due diligence phases of the transaction. Lincoln also led the debt financing of Fox, raising £21 million of total facilities with Investec.

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