Private Equity Propelled Perigord
Perigord Premedia was incorporated in 1997 as a general graphics company and then specialised in serving the pharmaceutical industry. Regulators place labyrinthine constraints on how prescription medications are packaged and marketed, and Perigord has decoded their machinations to produce attractive packaging within the rules.
The Perigord principals are
Paul Leamy (59) and Alan Leamy (56). In March 2021, they sold 70% of their venture to Indian conglomerate Tech Mahindra. Reported deal consideration was €21m, and the buyer also intends to acquire the balance of the equity, with the future outlay linked to earnout terms. A key attraction for Tech Mahindra was Perigord’s artwork management system designed for the pharma sector.
As is the case with many successful trade sales, the Leamys used private equity to expand their business. In February 2016, Perigord sourced €2.4m from the BDO Development Capital Fund, which followed on with another €3m in June 2017. This funding enabled Perigord to ramp up annual sales of €11.5m in 2017 to €24m in the 15 months to March 2021. The expansion process included acquisitions in America and in Germany.
Perigord is also active in Ireland and India, with group headcount of c.400 people. The deal with Tech Mahindra was effected by a subsidiary acquiring the 70% stake in Perigord Asset Holdings from Locarno Investments Ltd. Locarno, the main group operating company and owned equally by the Leamy brothers, booked a profit of €10.9m on the equity sale.
BDO was chipper about the Tech Mahindra deal too, pointing to a four-times increase in company valuation over the fund’s five-year investment term. The price of BDO funding encourages investees to look at exit options. The venture fund’s 2017 investment carried an escalating interest coupon up to 12% if the shares were not redeemed within five years.