Charme Capital Partners announced its first investment in UK yesterday (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The private equity company led by Matteo di Montezemolo acquired control of  JD Classics, the market-leading specialist for premium classic cars, providing retail, restoration, racing and related lifestyle services to its global ultra-high net-worth customer base (see here the press release).
Private equity firms deCAR Partners and FiveW Capital joined Charme as coinvestors in the deal, while JD Classics’ founder Derek Hood will retain a significant minority.
Founded in the 1980s in the UK, Derek Hood has built JD Classics into the pre-eminent specialist in retail, restoring, racing and exporting premium classic road and race cars worldwide with deep expertise in Jaguar, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Maserati, among others. The company today employs 60 expert technicians, craftsmen and engineers across its purpose-built engineering and sales complex in Maldon and its showroom in Mayfair, London.
JD Classics is a main partner of the most famous classic racing events in the world: the Mille Miglia, Goodwood Revival and Le Mans Classic.
Fiscal year closing on April 30th 2015 (company’s latest accounts available, see InsiderMedia) saw revenues soaring to 100.6 million pounds from 72.4 a year earlier, thanks to a substantial growth in worldwide revenue, which grew to 70.2 millions from almost 30 millions. Ebitda also grew to 18.4 million pounds (from 13.1m) and net profits rose to 14 millions (from 9.5m).
Charme’s investment in JD Classics is the firm’s second investment to date, following the July 2016 acquisition of Spanish reproductive genetic testing company Igenomix (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
