Lucena Capital, a UK search fund set up by former private equity executive Ben Suquet, has made its second acquisition.
The fund has acquired Bambi Air Compressors, a supplier of air compressors headquartered in Birmingham. Previous owner Laurence Clutterbuck established Bambi Air Compressors in 1977 and was seeking to retire.
In September 2023, Lucena announced the acquisition of Impress Group, a 110 employee and £9.6m turnover precision engineering services business based in the North East of the UK.
Ben Suquet, managing director of Lucena Capital, added: “I am thrilled to be part of the ongoing journey that Bambi Air has been on over the last 47 years. Their legacy is commendable, having established a specialist engineering and manufacturing business that consistently prioritises customer satisfaction through unwavering commitment to quality.”
Lucena Capital’s website states that it was set up to acquire a single UK SME, inline with the traditional search fund model in which the searcher becomes the CEO of the company it has acquired and is focused on running a single business. However, Lucena seems to be moving beyond the search fund model and instead into a PE fund or holding company structure, having backed a MD to run it’s first acquisition in Impress Group and now making a second standalone acquisition.
The founder of Lucena, Ben Suquet, worked in private equity before launching the search fund, most recently as an investor at mid-market UK based PE fund Inflexion.
Lucena Capital was set up with a focus on supporting succession for UK business owners looking to exit their businesses. The search fund was setup originally to acquire a business with over £750k in EBITDA, more than 20 employees and a strong record of profitability but also prospects for future growth.
