International law firm Taylor Wessing has advised Rutland Partners on the successful sale of Millbrook Group to Spectris PLC for £122 million. The deal realises for investors a return of over 6x investment.

Taylor Wessing advised Rutland on the acquisition of Millbrook from General Motors in 2013. The business, one of Europe’s leading test, validation and engineering service providers, owns a 665-acre site offering extensive test and validation facilities which complement over 45 miles of on and off road test tracks with a variety of surfaces, features and terrains.

Millbrook also acquired Test World in Finland in 2015, a deal on which Taylor Wessing also advised. Test World is the leading winter vehicle and tyre testing business with a range of winter tracks and indoor facilities enabling all year around testing within the Arctic Circle.

Private equity partner Edward Waldron said “It has been a pleasure to work with Rutland, and with Alex Burns and his team at Millbrook, on this investment over the last couple of years, culminating in this successful exit.”

David Wardrop, partner at Rutland commented “The Taylor Wessing team have been involved throughout our investment in Millbrook guiding us through the complexities of the original carve-out from General Motors, the cross-border transaction to acquire Test World and the eventual successful sale to Spectris. We have been impressed with their approach throughout and enjoyed working with this high quality team.”

The Taylor Wessing team advising Rutland Partners was led by private equity partner Edward Waldron, senior associate Jonny Bethell and associate Nick Karangizi, with support from private equity partner Nick Hazell. Banking and finance partner Martin Yells led on debt finance aspects.