Rigby Group Plc appointed Edouard Carlone as its new Head of M&A

Birmingham, UK, 14-7-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — Rigby Group Plc, the parent company for a portfolio of privately owned and highly successful businesses, has appointed Edouard Carlone, an experienced investment banker as its new Head of M&A.

Mr Carlone joins the group from UBS, where he specialised in M&A and corporate development for the past 14 years. His career experience includes originating and executing both buy and sell side transactions across multiple sectors for UK and International companies, entrepreneurs and private equity houses.

He also has global transaction experience in the US, Europe and the emerging markets and his appointment underlines the Group’s stated intention to continue to seek acquisition opportunities.

Edouard Carlone, Rigby Group Head of M&A, commented: “The Rigby Group has been one of the most active privately backed Groups in recent times in terms of deals. I am delighted to be joining them to support their strategic plans that will include further targeting of businesses which can add value to the Group.”

Rigby Group Plc has been intensely active over the past 18 months and the recent acquisition of Norwich International Airport represented its 10th major transaction and its fifth in 2014 alone.

As well as Norwich, the Group acquired Exeter Airport in the summer of 2013 to add to its existing ownership of Coventry. It furthermore manages Blackpool and City of Derry airports through Regional & City Airports (RCA). In addition, the Group as part of its Eden Hotel Collection has bought two sites in the South West, Bovey Castle and Tides Reach, with plans to redevelop both.

Earlier this year, SCC, the group’s technology division, acquired M2 Digital, the UK’s leading independently managed print services company as well as selling its Dutch division to North America based Systemax.

Steve Rigby, Rigby Group COO commented:
“We have been very clear in our intent to grow our portfolio of companies and the activity of the past 18 months is the implementation on that strategic plan. We feel the time is right to grow and expand Rigby Group and we continue to actively look at acquisition opportunities across our key areas of interest.

“We are one of the most active private firms in our sectors at the moment in terms of transactions, with five major deals already in 2014 and 10 in the past 18 months. We will continue to pursue this strategy and expect to announce more transactions in the next 12 months.”

The Group focuses on six core areas: technology, airports, hotels, real estate, finance and aviation. It encompasses the technology solutions provider SCC, the luxury Eden Hotel Collection, British International Helicopters (BIH), Regional & City Airports (RCA) the property development business Rigby & Rigby and a wide range of additional investments.

ENDS