Houlihan Lokey Advises Carlyle

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Carlyle (NASDAQ:CG) (Carlyle), a leading global investment firm, has acquired a majority stake in Anthesis, a leading global pure-play sustainability advisory and solutions company. Carlyle will be investing alongside Anthesis’ employee shareholders, with existing shareholder Palatine reinvesting for a minority stake. The transaction closed on 1 August 2023.

Carlyle is a leading global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit, and Global Investment Solutions. With $381 billion of assets under management as of 31 March 2023, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies, and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,200 people in 29 offices across five continents.

Over the past 10 years, Anthesis has built deep and broad expertise in analysing, designing, and implementing impact-led sustainability, ESG, and net-zero programmes for more than 4,000 clients across corporates, financial, and governmental institutions, delivered by a high-quality team of more than 1,250 specialists across 39 offices in 22 countries. The company, which has achieved B Corp. certification, has established itself as one of the largest groups of dedicated sustainability professionals globally, having experienced rapid growth across its global customer base and network in recent years, and has completed 18 add-on acquisitions since inception. Anthesis supports its highly diversified blue-chip client base in multiple aspects of its business, focusing on developing and activating sustainability strategies, enhancing digital capabilities, implementing carbon reduction plans, and creating purpose-led communications.

Equity for the investment was provided by the Carlyle Europe Partners (CEP) platform to support Anthesis in building upon its industry-leading position in end-to-end sustainability solutions through international expansion, broadening the company’s service offering and continuing its successful track record of M&A. This transaction strengthens Carlyle’s firm-wide commitment to collectively drive greater progress on critical ESG issues and to create and execute increasingly more effective decarbonisation strategies across investments.

Mark Dale, Managing Director in the CEP investment advisory team, said: “In Anthesis, we identified an opportunity to partner with a mission-driven business that is uniquely positioned to deliver impact. As demand for sustainability solutions continues to accelerate, we believe Anthesis’ long-standing reputation for leading technical expertise and track record of high-quality delivery makes the company exceptionally well positioned to further scale to meet this growing opportunity. Leveraging Carlyle’s global network and expertise in scaling similar businesses, we are delighted to support Stuart and the entire team in the next chapter of its growth journey.”

Stuart McLachlan, CEO of Anthesis, said: “Anthesis is uniquely positioned to provide the holistic solutions the market demands, harnessing its advisory, digital, carbon, and communication skills in response to regulatory and stakeholder pressures. We are excited to work closely with Carlyle to further strengthen its approach to ESG and sustainability as it seeks to lead by example in the global investment industry. We will continue to act as guides to our clients, realising the value-creation opportunity of sustainability in our rapidly changing world.”

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Carlyle in a deal that exemplifies the continued success of the firm’s dedicated global coverage of specialty consulting.