Brompton rides ahead with £19m stake sale as it anticipates China boost
Brompton, the manufacturer of London’s iconic folded bikes, is set to sell a £19m stake in the firm to the Business Growth Fund (BGF), as it looks to accelerate its expansion.
Chief executive Will-Butler Adams told The Times that it would announce the sale soon.
The deal values the company at £200m including the new funds, and BGF would take an 8 per cent stake in the firm.
Butler-Adams told The Times that the profits from the BGF sale would help the company hit its five-year turnover target of £250m and help towards building its planned factory in Kent.
Butler-Adams, the company’s chief executive, told The Times that he anticipates exports to China, its largest overseas market, to grow. “Remember, there are over a billion people in China and 60 million in the UK,” he said.
The folding-bicycle maker is one of Britain’s most prominent exporters, and currently ships 80 per cent of its bikes abroad. China recently overtook the UK as the firms largest market, with Germany and America following behind.
It comes after a strong recovery for the firm after suffering from rising costs associated with the war in Ukraine and Covid-related delays in its supply chain. It saw a boost in annual turnover from £107m to £130m for the year to the end of March.
However, an ongoing concern for the company has been its reliance on Taiwan. The firm currently has 40 per cent of its supply base located on the island, and there are worries supplies could be disrupted if geopolitical tensions with China get worse.