IanTaylor will expand ABN Amro into larger buyouts market

ABN Amro has announced that Ian Taylor is taking over this month as head of ABN Amro Development Capital. The UK arm of the bank’s global private equity business was formed in1996 when ABN Amro acquired the venture manager Causeway. Taylor, formerly a managing director of Legal & General Ventures, will succeed Lionel Anthony, co-founder of Causeway and a veteran of the UK private equity industry, who plans to retire later this year.

ABN Amro currently manages euro 630 million in private equity and mezzanine funds in the UK.

Taylor, an active and respected deal-maker, in recent years has been responsible for deals including the GBP68 million ($110 million) buyout of Golden Wonder, the GBP620 million ($1 billion) Unipoly buy and, most recently, the combined GBP120 million ($193 million) acquisitions of Bluecrest Seafood and Younger Seafood.

ABN Amro Development Capital is an established mid-market player. With Taylor’s appointment, the group has signalled its intention to extend its activities into the larger buyout sector. Jan Stolker, global head of corporate investments at ABN Amro, describes Taylor as the ideal person to grow our UK business and take us into different segments of the market’.

Taylor, who describes leaving LGV as quite a wrench’, draws parallels between his old and new positions, in that both, at the outset, have involved huge groups with relatively modest UK private equity operations. “I aim to repeat what has been done at LGV over the last ten years,” Taylor says. He is, however, keen to quash suggestions that a move into the larger buyout sector represents a radical refocusing of ABN Amro Development Capital’s business. Instead, says Taylor, it is a further piece in the jigsaw. As well as its strong position in the unquoted mid-market, the firm is an established mezzanine provider and is also that currently rare bird, a successful player in the smaller listed companies arena.