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MagiCard

June 2016
UK & Ireland, < £100m

Liberty Corporate Finance is pleased to announce that LDC has backed the £22m management buyout of Magicard, a global identification card business, from listed defence and security group Ultra Electronics.

Liberty advised CEO Andy Matko and the other members of the senior management team on the acquisition of a minority shareholding.  Following LDC’s investment, the business plans to focus on driving sales of its new Helix retransfer printer and increasing its expansion into new international markets.

Andy Matko, Managing Director of Magicard said:

“Liberty’s advice and help was crucial to us, especially as this was the first MBO experience for most of the management team.   Mick and his team worked with us from the start and through all the stages to a successful completion.”

“This is exciting news for Magicard and our global network of loyal partners.  This investment from LDC, along with the recent development of our new Helix ID card printer, will enable the business to move to the next level by further product development, and investment in sales and marketing. For our customers and suppliers, it will very much be business as normal, with the existing management team and global operations centres all staying in place.”

 Over 70% per cent of its £19.3m revenues comes from international markets, where it sells to more than 100 countries.

Magicard is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of secure desktop ID card printers, software and related consumables for the identity and access control markets.  The business’ end users include major private and public sector organisations around the world. Its products are used to print staff identify cards for NHS England and to help secure global summits, including the G20.  Based in Weymouth, Dorset, the business operates sales offices in the UK, US, Dubai and China.

The global market for secure desktop ID printers is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent between 2014 and 2019, thanks to increasing focus on identity authentication amongst corporate and government organisations and localised instant issuance.

The transaction closed 23rd August 2016 following US regulatory approval.