Investment in Dexters

Oakley Capital (“Oakley”) is pleased to announce that Oakley Capital IV (“Fund IV”) has agreed to invest in Dexters London Limited (“Dexters” or the “Company”), London’s leading independent Chartered Surveyors and Estate Agents.

Fund IV will invest alongside the management team, led by CEO Andy Shepherd, and the Company’s Founder and Chairman Jeff Doble.

Dexters was founded in 1993 as a single branch in Twickenham and has since grown to a network of 87 branches across Greater London through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Central to its success is the Company’s focus on lettings and property management, an area of the market that provides a stable recurring income, along with attractive market fundamentals due to the growing proportion of property that is privately rented. Dexters currently serves close to 27,000 landlords and in addition to its focus on lettings also facilitates more than 3,500 property sales per year. The Company has a long and consistent track-record of growth and cash generation through economic cycles, growing revenue at a 15% compound annual growth rate over the last 10 years, reaching £109 million last year.

Dexters has considerable scope for further growth and is well positioned to grow both organically and through new office openings and acquisitions of smaller competitors in its target areas. The estate agency market remains highly fragmented and Dexters has consistently demonstrated a track-record of accretive M&A. There is also an opportunity to digitalise the business to allow Dexters to deliver its services via multiple channels.

Oakley will draw upon expertise gained from investments in online real estate classifieds businesses Casa.it and idealista; its successful track record of executing buy-and-build strategies; and its leading experience in digitalisation to support Dexters’ management team in taking the Company’s growth to the next level.

Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital, commented:
“Oakley’s investment success is built upon backing proven, entrepreneurial, founder-led management teams – our partnership with Jeff and the Dexters team fits this mould. The Company’s focus, drive and spirit of collaboration has delivered performance where others in the sector have faltered. We look forward to being a part of Dexters’ next phase of growth, contributing our proven expertise in M&A and digitisation, and drawing on our experience in the property sector.”

Jeff Doble, Founder and Chairman of Dexters London Limited, commented:
Despite the challenges of Brexit and COVID-19, Dexters has continued to build market share and presence across London with new office openings, consistent rises in our sales and lettings performance and an increasing number and quality of new property instructions. This is testimony to all our colleagues working tirelessly to look after our clients and focus on sustaining the growth of the business. Our vision has always been to be the No.1 estate agency in London and as we look to move to a new level, we have decided to partner with Oakley Capital to help us work towards our ambitious long term plans.