Defaqto chairman Patrick Gale is to leave the company following a £27.6m MBO of the business funded in part by Synova Capital LLP, which hopes to double the company in size after taking a majority stake.
Foresight Group announced today on behalf of Foresight 4 VCT plc (F4), that it had completed the successful sale of Haddenham-based Defaqto Group Limited in a management buyout backed by UK private equity firm Synova Capital at an enterprise value of £24.25m. Gross proceeds of £27.6m have been received by Defaqto Group's shareholders.
Following the deal a number of directors will leave including Mr Gale, the non-executive chairman. Defaqto chief executive Zahid Bilgrami said "We have enjoyed Patrick's support as chairman in the development of the business over the last couple of years. We look forward to working with him in some capacity going forward." A new chairman has not been announced yet.
Synova says it has invested alongside the existing management team, acquiring a majority shareholding in the Defaqto business which it hopes to help double in size. The size of the investment or the MBO have not been disclosed but the deal is likely to have been worth many millions.
Defaqto is a well known independent provider of information on financial services products, focused on providing intelligence to support financial decision-making. It has built up a large databse of retail financial products and funds, maintaining data across the whole market to provide comparision services.
Defaqto has a range of products and services from this including ratings, software solutions, data services, and publications and events and many Financial Planners, Paraplanners, advisers and providers use Defaqto products to help with decision making.
Synova says that its investment will support the management team to help expand the company mainly through its organic activities with a strategy to double the size of the business over the next few years.

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Zahid Bilgrami, Defaqto's chief executive, said: "We are delighted to be supported in this next phase of growth by Synova. We believe there are a number of exciting opportunities ahead of us, including the expansion of the products and services that we offer to our customers on top of our unique product intelligence."
Philip Shapiro, a managing partner at Synova and non-executive director of Defaqto, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Defaqto's impressive management team who have delivered exceptional growth in recent years. We believe that Defaqto will continue to grow strongly as it provides greater transparency to the highly complex and heavily regulated retail financial services market."
Synova invests in UK growth opportunities with a particular focus on companies valued at between £5m and £50m. Key targets include business services, financial services, technology, consumer and healthcare and education. Defaqto was founded in 1994.