From BrewDog:
We are growing mega fast at the moment. We have broken the record for most consecutive years on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, and in 2017 we are forecasting our growth will be even faster.
To facilitate further growth, we are delighted to announce our new partnership with TSG Consumer Partners. TSG, based in San Francisco, are one of the world’s leading growth funds with successful investments in global brands like Pop Chips and Vitamin Water.
TSG has acquired approximately 22% of BrewDog plc, with £100million in proceeds going into the business for continued expansion, and the balance to create early shareholder liquidity, in a transaction that values our company at £1billion enterprise value. The deal is designed to deliver long term capital with 10 year time horizon, and is worth £213m in total.
The deal is also great for our Equity Punks. At the £1bn valuation, shares purchased in Equity for Punks I, which closed in February 2010, are now worth 2,800% of their original value. Even craft beer fans who invested in Equity for Punks IV last year have seen the value of their shareholding increase by 177% in just one year.
Our new partnership with TSG is a launch pad for us to turbocharge our mission to make the world as passionate about craft beer as we are, but it’s also a validation of our crowdfunding model. Crowdfunding can no longer be viewed as alternative finance; this is the democratisation of finance.
Our Equity Punks will be given the chance to realise some of their gains if they would like to do so. Equity Punks will be contacted next week with the opportunity to sell 15% of their shares (capped at 40 shares per investor) at the £1bn valuation. We will also offer a beery dividend alternative to our Equity Punks at the same time.
Assumptions might be made about BrewDog 'selling out', but this couldn't be further from the truth. We have taken on a minority investment partner, just like we did with The Griffin Group back in 2009. Martin and myself (James) still control the company, and remain the largest shareholders. Other great craft brewers like Stone Brewing Co. and Dogfish Head also recently took on minority investment deals, which are very similar to the deal we have just concluded.
Our new partners, TSG are also completely aligned with our stance on independence, and this remains entrenched into our articles of association. This new deal gives us the firepower to compete globally with the mega beer corporations and their faux craft beers, whilst remaining fiercely independent.
Ever since we first started this journey, BrewDog has existed to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are. We remain more laser focused on that goal than ever before, and this investment will allow us to accelerate our mission whilst we continue to invest in the two things we care about most; our beer and our people.
We’re not going to let the deal go to our heads, but Martin did buy himself a new jumper.
James and the BrewDog Team x
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