The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised Sovereign Capital and portfolio company Linnaeus Group on the acquisition of Village Vet and the associated debt raise to fund the purchase. This investment further consolidates the Group’s position as a leading veterinary services provider and makes it the fourth largest operator in the UK.

The Linnaeus Group was established in 2014 following the acquisition of Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service by Sovereign Capital. Our Corporate Finance team advised Sovereign through this acquisition, and since then, has advised Sovereign and Linnaeus Group through a further 12 acquisitions as they continue to diversify their offering and expand their geographical reach across England.

Village Vet operates in North London, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire from 22 first opinion practices, including five 24 hour hospitals and a specialist referral centre for more complex cases. The combined group will have 57 sites – five of which are state-of-the-art specialist referral centres – a staff base of 950 including 250 highly experienced veterinary surgeons, and an enhanced breadth of specialist services including orthopaedics, ophthalmology, neurology, soft tissue surgery, internal medicine, oncology, dermatology and cardiology.

James Mines from our team provided buy-side lead advisory support throughout the acquisition and the debt advisory team, of Ian Milne and Simon Sherliker, were engaged by Sovereign Capital and Linnaeus to take them through the process of raising funds to support the acquisition.

Brendan Robinson, CEO & Founder of Village Vet together with his fellow directors will continue to run and support the development of the business. Brendan will also join the Linnaeus Group board.

“Village Vet is a high-quality, well invested business and we are delighted to welcome it to the Linnaeus Group. The team share an ethos and commitment to excellence and continued improvement which is highly visible across its operations and we look forward to building upon their successes, further expanding the Group and continuing to invest in the first-class service offering. We have been working with the team since our original investment in Linnaeus. Once again, we were extremely impressed with the way in which they seamlessly blend their buy-side and debt advisory services to provide a highly responsive and top quality service that was critical to the successful delivery of a complex, competitive and demanding transaction. The team approach is very hands-on and detailed, and their support was invaluable.” Jonathan Kay, Director, Sovereign Capital.

“Village Vet and its referral centre, London Vet Specialists complement our existing practices; this is a tremendous development for the Group. With Sovereign’s continued investment and support, we look forward to further consolidating our position in the UK market.” Lynne Hill, Chief Executive, Linnaeus Group.