Duke Street Capital is a
private equity firm focused on
leveraged buyout and
growth capital investments in
middle-market companies in Western Europe, particularly the UK and France. Duke Street invests across four sectors: consumer, healthcare, industrials/engineering, and services. It focuses on companies with an enterprise value up to £400 million.[1]
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]
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.[29][30]
In November 2022, Duke Street acquired engineering services firm Suir Engineering from
Dalkia and
EDF Energy.[31][32]