Specialist Tours Ltd (STL) has been sold in a secondary buyout to Kings Park Capital (KPC) and management.
Panoramic Growth Equity has exited the Salisbury-based tour operator two and a half years after its initial investment.
During the period of Panoramic’s investment, STL has acquired three additional brands; Andante Travels, which specializes in archaeological tours, in 2013, Historical Trips, which offers history-themed tours led by expert and celebrity historians, in 2014 and New York-based Archaeological Tours earlier in 2015.
The investment from KPC will be used to fund a further UK-based acquisition.
STL is led by chief executive Ian Finlay and has a turnover of more than £8m.
The sale is the third exit from Panoramic’s Enterprise Capital Fund I and is part of its plans to raise its second £50m fund in 2015.
Ian Finlay said: “We have grown very fast and the Panoramic team’s deep expertise of growing businesses has helped us to achieve that in a controlled and professional way, and to put in place a platform to support the further acquisition of brands as we move forwards in 2015.”
Panoramic and the management team were advised by Pitmans and Stewart Lambert at James Cowper Kreston Corporate Finance.