Three buyouts in three days: Endless inks deal with travel media firm

Ink publishes in-flight magazines for more than 40 different airlines including American Airlines, EasyJet, Iberia and Ryanair and has offices across the world.

The £48m-turnover business has invested heavily in new technology in recent years.

Endless is understood to have paid around £8m for a majority stake to help the company develop these platforms.

Management retains a minority stake in the business.

Francesco Santinon, who led the transaction for Endless, said: “Ink has an excellent reputation and track record, backed by 21 years of accumulated experience, intellectual property and know-how. This has resulted in the business being the leader in the provision of both electronic and in-flight media for the global airline industry.

“Our investment puts in place a capital structure which allows the business to continue developing market-leading products for both new clients and its existing portfolio of airlines across Europe, the USA and Asia.”

Ink was founded in 1994 and has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Melbourne, New York, São Paulo and Singapore. It has 300 employees.

Michael Keating, joint CEO, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Endless, who quickly understood the business and its potential.”

The Leeds-based private equity house announced two deals earlier this week: the £60m buyout of Adare Group, a £170m-turnover communications and marketing firm headquartered in Huddersfield, and the £40m buyout of FMG, a road incident specialist also based in Huddersfield.

Garry Wilson, managing partner at Endless, told The Yorkshire Post that the investor is looking at potential deals in the oil and gas, retail and contruction industries.