The chief executive of donation processing firm Valldata has confirmed that its management team has purchased the organisation from its private equity owners for an undisclosed sum.
Greg Michael, who became Valldata’s chief executive in July 2015, said that he and members of his senior management team have completed the buy-out of Valldata Services Ltd and another organisation, Charity Pay, from private equity firm Livingbridge.
While Michael would not confirm the sum paid for the organisation, he said “by completing this deal the financial position of Valldata has been strengthened significantly and we have secured additional funding to deliver on our investment plans”.
Michael also confirmed that Valldata Group Limited, a shell company created by Livingbridge for the purposes of investment, had been put into administration.
He stressed that none of Valldata’s 175 staff would be made redundant as a result.
“Valldata Group Limited was used by Livingbridge as the holding company for its shareholding and loan notes in Valldata, and was not transferred as part of the deal,” said Michael. “There is no change to any engagement we have with clients and there is no change to the employment terms of Valldata’s 175 employees”.
Its 2014/15 accounts showed that Valldata Group Limited had debts of more than £3m due for repayment within a year and further debts of over £10m falling due in another 12 months.
Companies House show that three directors have recently resigned in the early part of May, including Jasmine Whitbread, the former chief executive of Save the Children International. Michael said that Whitbread had stepped down from her non-executive directorship role due to “time commitments”.
According to its last set of accounts, Valldata Services Ltd had a 7.4 per cent increase in overall turnover to £8.4m. Much of this was off-set however by administrative expenses and “exceptional items” which account for spending over £5.4m.
Valldata Services Ltd “made significant investment in technology, management, processes and extra delivery and support resources” in early February.
Around that time the organisation also confirmed that it had made a “small number of redundancies”.
