Caledonia Investments takes majority stake in film lens maker Cooke

Caledonia Investments said it had taken an 89% stake in Cooke Optics, a UK manufacturer of premium-end cinematography lenses for the film, television and advertising industries, in a transaction which values the business at £96.5m.

The deal involves Caledonia taking £62.5m of equity and £30m of debt to take the stake from trom its current owners, Growth Capital Partners and Cooke's management team.

The management team have reinvested £7.8m of their sales proceeds for the remaining equity, the company added.

In the financial year to 30 June 2017, Cooke reported earnings before, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £7.7m and pre-tax profitof £2.8m, with gross assets of £33.8m.

Calendonia's head of unquoted investments Duncan Johnson, said Cooke's profitability and high cash generation, “combined with its strong competitive position in the film making industry globally, makes it ideally suited to Caledonia's unquoted portfolio”.

Founded as a lens manufacturer in 1886, Cooke has been produced equipment for the industry for more than a century. Headquartered in Leicester, it has 130 employees.