Alantra advises Graphite Capital and the shareholders of UK skincare specialist, sk:n, on its sale to TriSpan

Jan 2019

Sell-side advisory

Alantra, the global mid-market investment banking firm, has advised Graphite Capital and the shareholders of UK skincare specialist, sk:n, on its sale to TriSpan, a leading private equity firm. The deal evidences that, despite a challenging pre-Brexit consumer environment, sales of high quality businesses in attractive segments of the consumer sector are achievable.

Headquartered in Birmingham, sk:n is the UK’s leading skincare specialist, with 51 clinics across the UK offering a range of non-surgical skin and cosmetic treatments.Founded in 1986, sk:n clinics utilise the latest skincare technologies and offer access to the country’s best doctors, dermatologists and skin practitioners with the highest levels of training and expertise. Following the investment, sk:n’s senior management team, led by CEO Darren Grassby and CFO Simon Hope, will continue to pursue an ambitious growth plan, further strengthening the brand and expanding its clinic base into more locations across the UK.

This is the latest in a series of transactions completed by Alantra’s consumer team including the sales of International Dance Supplies to Revolution Dancewear, Montezuma’s to Inverleith, Ape Snacks to a private investor, and AiP to Sodexo; as well as the acquisition of Godrej’s UK personal care subsidiary by JZ International.

The Alantra team advising Graphite and sk:n comprised Bobby Fletcher, Steve Currie, Chris Bates and Justin Crowther.

Bobby Fletcher, Director at Alantra, commented: “sk:n is the UK’s leading non-surgical dermatological treatment provider with an extensive clinic base across the UK. Led by CEO Darren Grassby, sk:n is now poised to take advantage of the opportunity of working with a new private equity funder that intends to significantly increase its UK footprint whilst exploring international clinic expansion. TriSpan immediately recognised the latent opportunity around increased skincare product distribution through its clinics and online, and they will bring additional, complementary expertise to the existing high-quality management team. We are very pleased to have delivered such a result for our client in a challenging consumer environment and against the current political backdrop.”

sk:n’s CEO, Darren Grassby, said: “sk:n is an ambitious brand with exciting plans to grow over the coming years and in TriSpan, Alantra identified a strategic approach that is a perfect fit for our business.We are very excited to take sk:n to the next level and confident that the combination of our highly-experienced team with TriSpan’s experience in rollouts, its network and international exposure will enable us to propel the business forward.”