Magnetic appeal
Tesla was a highly specialised engineering business supplying magnets and gradient coils used in MRI scanners and particle accelerators.
Graphite backed the management buy-out of Tesla in 1995. Its medical division produced the gradient coils used in MRI body-scanners and its physics division manufactured large magnets for use in nuclear particle accelerators for high-energy physics research.
We supported a strong management team which had significant experience in the sector and strong relationships with Tesla’s key customers. The company occupied a unique position as one of the world’s leading independent suppliers of gradient coils to the medical market. It was also set to benefit from a substantial supply agreement with CERN, the nuclear energy research centre based in Geneva, which planned to build new particle accelerators.
Under Graphite's ownership, Tesla:
- secured substantial long-term contracts in both core divisions
- invested in new equipment and additional headcount to increase capacity at its main production facility to cope with new contracts
- acquired businesses in the UK, continental Europe and the US to increase its product offering
- more than doubled operating profit
In 2005 Tesla was sold to Bank of Scotland, generating a multiple of 2.7 times cost.
