History
The firm which is based in London was founded in 1988 as Hambro European Ventures, the private equity investment arm of Hambros Bank. The principals of the firm completed a spinout from Hambros in 1998, following the bank's sale to Société Générale, and changed the name of the firm to Duke Street Capital Management Services [2] and in 2008 to Duke Street Management Services. [3] In June 2013, Duke Street sold a 35 per cent stake in itself to Tikehau Group, a French fund manager. [4] [5] In August 2018, the company rebranded as Duke Street Capital. [6] The firm's managing partners are Charlie Troup [7] and James Almond. [8]
The firm has raised approximately £2.6 billion since inception across six private equity investment funds. [9]
Duke Street, with Hutton Collins, acquired noodle restaurant chain Wagamama in March 2011 for £215 million from Lion Capital [10] [11] and announced its funding of the national and international expansion of the business. [12]
In February 2012, Duke Street acquired a majority stake in legal services firm Parabis Group. [13] [14] In December 2014, Duke Street invested a further £13 million into Parabis Group to support substantial reforms in response to the Legal Services Act 2007, [15] but in 2015, wrote down their £21.4 million investment. [16]
Among the firm's other notable investments are Gala Bingo, [17] Equity Insurance Group, [18] [19] Burton's Foods, [20] Esporta Health Clubs, Getty Images, The Original Factory Shop, LM Funerals, Marie Brizard, [21] Megabowl Oasis, [22] Great Mills [23] and Payzone. [24] In August 2014, Duke Street together with Partners Group and Tikehau, acquired Voyage Care, a British care provider for people with different needs, from HG Capital for the sum of £ 375 million. [25] In August 2015, Duke Street, with Searchlight Capital Partners, acquired controlling interests in two British construction equipment rental firms, Fork Rent and One Call Hire. [26] In October 2017, Duke Street, backed by Goldman Sachs, acquired TeamSport Go Karting, [27] [28] the largest UK go karting operator ranking second largest globally, which was bought out by management in 2013. [29]
In July 2018, Duke Street, for a sum of around £100million, became the new owner of Great Rail Journeys, a tour operator that offers escorted worldwide rail tour holidays, based in York. [30] [31]
In November 2022, Duke Street acquired engineering services firm Suir Engineering from Dalkia and EDF Energy. [32] [33] In July 2024, Duke Street acquired Agito Medical, a provider of medical imaging equipment, spare parts and pre-owned equipment based in Aalborg, Denmark, from Philips for an undisclosed amount. [34] [35] [36]
In December 2024, Duke Street acquired ForLife Group, a distributor of specialist stoma care products in the German and UK markets, from German healthcare provider GHD Gesundheits GmbH in a carve out deal. [37] [38]
