Investment Director Promotion for London Team
James Excell has been working alongside investment partners Mike Fell and Philip Duquenoy at Key’s London office to source and deliver investment opportunities as part of the deployment of its latest fund.
On 15 May, the team announced that it had made an £8.65m investment to acquire a majority stake in rapidly growing online retailer of building materials, Plymouth-based Construction Materials Online Ltd (CMO), which operates retail websites supplying DIY builders and small building contractors. The CMO deal followed KCP’s substantial investment in expanding domiciliary care business Routes Healthcare, which provides NHS-funded intensive home care. The investment, completed last July, marked the first investment made by Key from its new fund.
Key, Partner Philip Duquenoy said: “Over the last 12 months, James has been a vital member of the team, not only working with us to identify successful SMEs with the potential for further rapid growth, but also providing the strategic support these companies need in order to optimise our investment.”
“This promotion is well-deserved recognition of James’s contribution. What’s more, with many more deals in the pipeline as we deploy our current fund, we expect him to continue to play an important role in completing transactions and helping to grow our portfolio businesses.”
I am very fortunate to work with such an experienced and well-respected team and have learnt a huge amount over the last year. It’s extremely satisfying to support management teams of dynamic businesses, sharing their vision and developing strategy to support its delivery.
James’ previous experience includes three years with FTI Consulting where he worked in the corporate finance practice and five years with Grant Thornton in their London debt advisory business. He also completed a secondment to Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. James is an ACA-ICAEW chartered accountant.
London and Leeds-based Key is a leading investor in the smaller buy-out market. With funds under management of £140m Key is actively seeking investments of £3m to £15m in high growth businesses across the UK.