Phoenix Equity Partners (“Phoenix”) today announces it has exchanged contracts to invest in Ava Global Limited (“Ava” or the “Company”), a leading international specialist logistics provider. Phoenix is acquiring a majority stake from Ava’s parent company, Ava Risk Group (“ARG”), an ASX-quoted security technology business, investing alongside Ava’s founders, Chris Fergus and James Alston, to support the Company’s continued rapid growth. Completion will follow after regulatory filings.
Ava has grown rapidly since its foundation five years ago. Active in more than 70 countries through its four international offices, Ava operates an asset-light, technology-enabled business model. It co-ordinates the safe transportation and insurance of high value cargo from and to secure customer locations around the world on behalf of international financial institutions, government organisations and large corporates.
Phoenix will support investment in Ava’s people, technology and office infrastructure to enable the continued rapid scaling of the business. Phoenix has extensive experience of helping to grow other asset light network logistics businesses, including Palletways and GFS.
Chris Fergus, CEO of Ava, said: “We have had a fantastic period of growth since our foundation in 2016 with ARG. Given the scale that we have now achieved, we are delighted with this transaction to be establishing Ava as an independent business with a strong, experienced financial partner, dedicated to accelerating our growth. We will continue to focus on providing the highest level of service to our customers and partners as we grow our offering.”
Tim Dunn, Partner at Phoenix, said: “We are excited to be working alongside such an experienced and successful team, in a sector we know extremely well. Ava is a high-growth business that we think has the ability to scale significantly over the next few years, and we look forward to helping Chris and James achieve this ambition.”
Phoenix was advised by Alantra (Corporate Finance), EY Parthenon (Commercial Due Diligence), Ernst & Young (Financial and Tax Due Diligence) and Travers Smith (Legal). Management was advised by Alantra and Osborne Clark.