Member Info for BadApple

MXCP’s Investment in CSI Investment in CSI MXC Capital originated the opportunity and is acting as cornerstone investor, subscribing for 25% worth £13 mill today’s prices but still waiting on CSI to come to market with an expected Mcap of approx £80 Mill valuing MXCP’s 25% at £20 mill and already in huge profit. MXCP will receive fees for all transaction the company makes in terms of the buy and build. MXCP also have options over 5% of the company. This is obviously a huge investment for MXCP and as you can see above will increase the NAV of MXCP from the first day of trading when CSI returns to the market this month. Andy Ross, Formerly of MXCP and now incoming CEO of Castle Street said: "The smaller end of the IT services sector is highly fragmented providing an exceptional opportunity for a buy-and-build platform focusing on IT solutions and Cloud services. The combination of a strong balance sheet, the new management team we are building and MXC's proven track record in the sector is a powerful one that will set us apart and presents a great opportunity to deliver value for shareholders."

MXCP’s Investment in PINN: Investment in PINN 6 MILL worth £0.9 mill today’s prices. MXCP receive fees for all transaction the company makes in terms of the buy and build. MXCP also have options over 5% PINN advised the market of a strategic investment by MXC Capital, to provide funds to be used by the Company to implement the Company's growth strategy and to fund the working capital requirements of the Group. The Company has also appointed MXC Capital to provide corporate finance advisory services to the business. Nicholas Scallan, CEO of Pinnacle, said: "I am confident that the involvement of MXC Capital, with its powerful network of contacts in our industry, will generate a number of opportunities to grow our business. I look forward to working with them." Marc Young, CEO of MXC Capital, said: "We have known Pinnacle for some time. We see an opportunity to work with management to drive the Company's strategy, identify acquisition opportunities and accelerate its growth." With the former accumuli team now retructuring and charged with growing PINN there is another opportunity for a measurable ROI

MXCP’s Investment in ECV: Investment in ECV 110 MILL worth £3.3 mill today’s prices. MXCP receive fees for all transactions that ECV make in terms of the buy and build. MXCP have A holding which represents 25% of the entire shares in issue. They also have 5% in Evergreen options. MXC Capital as financial adviser will provide corporate finance services to the business. Peter Rigg, Chairman of MXC, said: "We have a growing pipeline of transactions at MXC. Our investment in ECV will provide us with a useful opportunity to leverage that pipeline." Highly possible that we will see MXCP non listed companies acquired with this one which would give MXCP a measurable ROI.

Is now in full flow, it's very clear that 2016 is going to be the year where they make huge strides and the share price is lagging behind by some distance. 7p from this level should be achievable, possibly more depending on acquisitions made by current invesments.

Appointment of Director The board of directors of ECV is pleased to announce the appointment of Charles Vivian as a non-executive director of the Company with effect from 6 January 2016. Charles is a Partner at MXC Capital Markets LLP and member of the Advisory Board of MXC Capital Limited, the Company's new advisor and institutional investor. Previously he has worked as an Investment Executive at EPIC Private Equity and Marwyn Capital. Charles specialises in listed, buy-and-build investment strategies and has led numerous acquisitions and disposals as well as managing the investments in portfolio companies. In addition, Charles worked for over six years at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he specialised in public and private M&A.

London IT services firm Selection Services is being acquired by Castle Street Investments. Selection Services, which has revenues of around £35 million, is based in Bromley, south-east London. Selection has around 300 employees and over 500 UK clients, mainly SMEs. Cloud services and project management are among the firm’s specialities. money poundsCastle Street Investments is acquiring Selection for £34.8 million, helped by an investment from MXC Capital which will in turn take a 24.9 percent stake in Castle Street Investments. MXC originated the Selection acquisition via Castle Street. Andy Ross, currently a partner at MXC, who was also previously CEO of Northgate Managed Services before Capita acquired it, will become the CEO of Castle Street. MXC said the deal represented a platform acquisition to start a “buy and build” in the IT solutions and cloud services sector, with a focus on the “highly fragmented smaller end of the market”. MXC is investing £12.9 million out of a total share placing of £30 million, amounting to 24.9 percent of the enlarged share capital of Castle Street. Castle Street will acquire Selection on a debt free basis and will have £16.5 million of available cash resources and terms agreed on a debt facility of £7 million to support its strategy. Peter Rigg, chairman of MXC, said: “The experience and skills of MXC in the sector will be at the disposal of the board of Castle Street in creating shareholder value. The transaction demonstrates the MXC model at work: identifying the opportunity, advising on the transaction, securing the funding and then adding the operational management experience to drive the buy and build opportunity.”

Very sensible approach and hugely rewarding for share holders of MXCP due to the advisory fees on such large acquiitions and strategy. No wonder everyone was taking thier slary in shares instead of cash. MXCP is going to benefit greatly form this deal for years to come.

Continued He said he is hoping to transform Selection from a £35m-revenue firm to a £100m-player in the next three years through these acquisitions. Following these deals, Ross said it's "likely" that the Selection brand will be changed once other firms are integrated into it. But he said that besides the departing MD, Harrington, and CFO, Mark Woodall, there will be no other changes to personnel at the MSP. A lot of players similar to Selection are constrained by their private equity owners who don't provide them with enough capital to expand, Ross added. But he said the MXC and CSI takeover will provide Selection with the financial backing it needs to grow rapidly. This investment by MXC is not the first buy-and-build MSP venture it has undertaken, with it also investing in Pinnacle and Redcentric.But Ross said he is "confident that there is very little overlap between" these MSPs, as Redcentric is focused on the large end of the market and Pinnacle is focused on the small end, with Selection in the middle. Industry analyst Megabuyte said Selection still has a long way to go to provide a full offering, but it is in the right hands now. "Under [private equity firm] Palatine's watch, Selection had done much of the groundwork in making the transition to a cloud services provider," the analyst said. "On top of its core IT managed services offering, it has acquired cloud services and business comms to round out the service. "However, we believe that work still needs to be done to pull all those strands together into a coherent customer offering. This work can now be completed under the new management team, and potentially within the scope of a larger group. And on that note, the fact that CSI has structured the deal so it still has plenty of fire power on its balance sheet suggests that further acquisitions may not be too far behind."

Serial channel investment house MXC Capital has bagged a 25 per cent stake in managed service provider (MSP) Selection Services, as it looks to create a £100m buy-and-build mid-market player. MXC's move is part of Castle Street Investments' (CSI) £34.8m reverse takeover of Selection. To fund the acquisition, CSI, which was previously a dating website but sold its assets to become an investment vehicle, announced the conditional placing of shares to raise £30m. As part of this placing, MXC announced an investment of £12.9m worth of equity, which equates to roughly 25 per cent of the shares of CSI. Selection is a private equity-owned MSP focused on the mid-market with revenues of £34.5m for the year ending June 2015. As part of the deal, MXC partner Andy Ross is becoming CSI's new CEO, with Selection's MD Grahame Harrington due to leave the firm following the deal's completion. Ross told CRN he has been charged with building up Selection through acquisitions. "What you typically find in the mid-market is that the CIO deals with a number of different suppliers," he said. "There is no one supplier who can deliver everything they need. In the enterprise space, a lot of the larger providers have their own network, datacentres and their own people, but we are going to replicate that in the mid-market." He said that while Selection has a good base as an MSP, it still relies on third parties, such as Telicity, for datacentre hosting facilities and that restricts it over pricing and is not "the most efficient way of doing things" "So our plan is to take a managed services platform – in this case we started with Selection – and deliver around that with our own network and datacentre assets," he said. "So over time we can deliver the full range of services and technology our clients need, but do it on our own assets base. Therefore we have control over the assets and the pricing and that will make us more competitive in the market." In order to provide its own autonomous services, Ross said there will be acquisitions, with the first "likely" to come in 2016. A statement released by CSI said the targets will be "assets offering datacentre infrastructure, network connectivity and managed services".

Castle Street Investments has struck a £34.8 million deal to buy an IT and cloud services firm. The Edinburgh-based investor, formed by chairman Bill Dobbie following the sale of the Cupid online dating business, said it has raised £30 million through an oversubscribed share placing to help fund the acquisition of Selection Services Investments. Talks over the possible takeover were unveiled by Castle Street on Christmas Eve. The deal will see technology-focused investment MXC Capital take a 24.9 per cent stake in Castle Street, with MXC partner Andy Ross becoming its chief executive. Bill Dobbie has mystery acquisition in his sights Ross said: “The smaller end of the IT services sector is highly fragmented providing an exceptional opportunity for a buy-and-build platform focusing on IT solutions and cloud services. The combination of a strong balance sheet, the new management team we are building and MXC’s proven track record in the sector is a powerful one that will set us apart and presents a great opportunity to deliver value for shareholders.” Selection has more than 500 active customers and generates £35m in revenues, Castle Street said. The acquisition is subject to approval at a shareholder meeting to be held in London on 20 January. Dobbie said: “It has been our stated investment strategy to seek investment into a profitable and cash generative business with an experienced management team, good revenue visibility and growth opportunities. We believe that in Selection we have identified a business that meets these criteria and look forward to an exciting future.”

Selection is now very clearly on our radar and we expect to report the kind of news flow - and performance - that we have come to expect from MXC backed businesses.

MXC Capital (the sponsors of TechMarketView’s Little British Battler programme) is backing a new ‘Buy and Build’ in the IT Services arena. The basics Back in 2005, Easydate, ‘a casual dating service’, was admitted to AIM. They were rebranded in 2011 as Cupid. The dating activities were sold in 2013 realising some £38.6m. Cupid was renamed Castle Street Investments retaining its AIM listing and with cash of c£22m. Selection Services is a 25 year old IT services company with revenues of c£34.5m and EBITDA of £3.3m (to June 15). Based in Bromley, Selection employs c300 personnel and service over 500 clients in the UK. In 2011 Palatine backed an MBO. Selection is what we would describe as a ‘vanilla services company’ with no major IPR or niche specialisation. Instead they offer a full range of Managed Services, Cloud transition and Project development – specifically to SMEs in the UK. Around 30% of their revenues come from ATOS. The deal Today it was announced that Castle Street Investments was acquiring Selection for an enterprise value of £34.8m (1x revenues). £30m has been raised in an over-subscribed placing. MXC Capital, who originated the deal, will have a 24.9% stake.Ross The people Andy Ross, currently a Partner at MXC who was CEO of Northgate Managed Services for 9 years but left just before in Feb 13 Capita acquires Northgate Managed Services at knockdown price, will become the CEO of the new business joined by Julian Phillips as CFO (was CFO at Northgate Managed Services with Andy). The objective I’ve just had the opportunity to speak with Ross and Marc Young from MXC. Rather than looking back at what Selection was in the past, I see this more as a vehicle where the drivers are the most important part of the story. Clearly there is a requirement in the market for a full IT service house that can take SMEs on the journey that they will all need to take into the Cloud (be it private or public) – embracing data centres, network services, Cloud and all associated support services There are actually very few companies that address that part of the market – mainly because historically it has been difficult to make any money from it. So the larger players tend to concentrate of the larger deals/clients. Indeed, just like ATOS, preferring to partner with companies like Selection in the SME part of the market. MXC have proved to be very good at the ‘Buy and Build’ model and that’s exactly what I expect them to do at Selection. I think we can expect a series of acquisitions coupled with the inevitable ‘cost savings’ boosting margin. In this regard, Selection starts off with a very healthy balance sheet. £16.5m cash available and up to an addition £19m of credit available when/if required. Selection is now very clearly on our radar and we expect to report the kind of news flow - and p

Like I sad, a thougherbred ("MXC" or the "Company") Lead Investor and Advisor to Castle Street Investments plc on £30m fundraising and Acquisition MXC is pleased to announce that it has agreed to cornerstone a placing of new ordinary shares in Castle Street Investments plc ("CSI") (the "Placing"), an AIM quoted cash shell, in conjunction with CSI's proposed acquisition of Selection Services Investments Limited ("Selection"), a UK focused provider of IT solutions and Cloud Services (the "Acquisition") (together, the "Transaction"). Highlights: · Platform acquisition to start buy and build in the IT solutions and Cloud services sector supported by organic growth · MXC Capital originated the opportunity and is acting as cornerstone investor in £30 million equity placing, subscribing for £12.9 million of equity and will own 24.9% of issued share capital post Re-Admission · Placing more than 2x oversubscribed, supported by high quality institutional shareholders · Experienced management team recruited with track record of delivering growth and shareholder value, to be led by Andy Ross, partner in MXC Capital, as CEO Selection is an established business with £35 million of revenues, 65% of which are recurring. The Acquisition represents a platform acquisition to start a buy and build in the IT solutions and Cloud services sector, with a focus on the highly fragmented smaller end of the market. MXC is investing £12.9 million out of a total placing of £30.0 million, amounting to 24.9% of the enlarged share capital of CSI. The Placing was more than 2x oversubscribed and supported by high quality institutional investors. In addition, MXC has been granted, subject to certain vesting conditions, evergreen warrants over 5 % of the enlarged share capital of CSI at a price of 30 pence per CSI share, with subsequent adjustment to reflect any further equity issues. . CSI will acquire Selection on a debt free basis and will have £16.5 million of available cash resources and terms agreed on a debt facility of £7 million to support its strategy. Peter Rigg, Chairman of MXC, said: "I am delighted to announce the second IPO led by MXC. The experience and skills of MXC in the sector will again be at the disposal of the Board of CSI in creating shareholder value. The transaction demonstrates the MXC model at work: identifying the opportunity, advising on the transaction, securing the funding - in this case twice over subscribed - and then adding the operational management experience to drive the buy and build opportunity. It's a good start to the year for us." Following the Re-Admission of CSI to trading on AIM MXC will have a portfolio of 6 quoted investments and 5 private investments. The Transaction is conditional upon, inter alia, the passing of resolutions by shareholders o

I don't see a dark horse, I see a thoroughbred that will hit 8p in due course. There is a gluten of news in the pipeline and once released MXCP will be under the spot light like it was before when 4.5p, only this time it will keep going on a long, over due, re-rate.

No link but from a financial shares mag.

Looks like more trolls having a go at CSI It all points to imminent news and desperation to get in cheap as possible.

The initial investment of GBP4.8 million for a 19% stake in the company has been satisfied from MXC's existing cash resources. A further GBP1 million of development capital may be invested at the option of MXC. In addition MXC has been granted options over a further 7.5% of the Company's issued share capital. In the financial year to 31 October 2014 Sagacity generated revenues of GBP4.8 million and EBITDA of GBP1.3 million and is expecting to deliver more than GBP7 million of revenues and over GBP2 million of EBITDA in the current year. This investment in Sagacity will sit alongside MXC's growing portfolio of IP rich software providers including Castleton Technology PLC and 365Agile Group PLC. Excellent news and one that will provide a very good return for MXCP. All aid for in cash and now still sitting with £24 mill cash for further investments.

Yes, this one looks like a cracker. All coming together very nicely here for the really big news ;)

Bargain prices here and good luck to those that get in so low. Mid 40's a few weeks ago and some lost patience right at the time when news is about to land. Seen it a 100 times with the ship getting emptied then the good news comes in!! Mind there is £21.5 mill in cash ready to be invested. That's a huge stream of news flow when it lands!

We are now in the very final stages of long enduring wait that many have had to endure but like everything time does indeed take are of things and once again it's doing so here. When MXCP and Kestrel last collaborated and put their financial might together the result was a £68 mill deal. If a deal of that magnitude is to be repeated we can safely see this re-rate north of £1. The current holders have waited and been patient but it's about to be rewarded. 28th of this month allows us to move on and we all know how mxcp work or at least we should by now? All the house work gets done and then the news flow starts and this time is no different. Roll on the 28th. Great chance to get in before it comes to pass.