Two firms in the recruitment sector have agreed to management buy-out deals.

Headhunter Whitehead Mann is to be taken over for £25.7m cash. The acquiring team is led by: Piers Marmion, the former head of US executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, and Whitehead’s current chairman Jonathan Baines, finance director Mark Ground and board director Carol Leonard. Sir Colin Southgate chaired a group of Whitehead directors not involved in the buy-out, so the bid could be independently assessed. He said: “Management and employees across the firm have made considerable progress over the last 18 months in restructuring Whitehead Mann Group and moving it towards profitability. We believe that the offer fairly balances the risks and opportunities faced by the Company going forward.” The offer of 42p a share is a 31.6% premium to the average share price over the three months to 31 August. Baines founded financial services executive search firm Baines Gwinner in 1986. The firm was taken over by Whitehead Mann in 2001. He has been on the Whitehead board since then, and became chairman this year. Leonard joined Whitehead Mann in the spring of 2004 after the acquisition of her firm in a cash deal worth up to £3.6m. Whitehead Mann reported a pre-tax loss of £1.6m for the year to March. This was narrower than the £19.6m loss of a year earlier, when it suffered exceptional charges after closing businesses. The company said it had been hurt by unsolicited approaches to acquire it in 2004 and by “limited integration” of acquisitions made under the previous management team. Chris Merry took over as chief executive in 2005. but will leave the company after the takeover, as will Southgate. SHL bought for £100m Meantime, psychometric testing firm SHL is set to be bought for £100m. The buyer is Surrey 4, specially formed for the deal. It is owned by the SHL management team — including chief executive John Bateson and finance director Emma Lancaster — and Hg Capital Funds. The 180p-a-share cash deal has been recommended by the independent directors. The company initially revealed the approach on the same day as it reported first-half results. Pre-tax profit fell to £3.3m, from £3.4m. Revenue was up 3% at £34.9m. The product division, the firm’s biggest, saw sales rise 11% to £23.7m. Products are trading well David Best, chairman, said: “The larger product business continues to trade well and we expect continued growth in the second half driven by the investments we are making. We believe that there will be some recovery in the lower visibility assessment services side, but not sufficient to recover the year-to-date revenue shortfalls against last year — a trend which we believe is likely to continue.” The company has made several profit warnings in recent years. In other deals: *  NES, the Manchester-based technical recruitment firm, has changed hands again in an £86m deal. A venture capital company, Graphite Capital, has acquired a 65% stake in the firm. The deal provides an exit for founders Geoff Lloyd and Bryan Sullivan, and private equity firm Bridgepoint. NES provides contract staff worldwide in the oil and gas, infrastructure, rail and power sectors. The company operates from 14 offices — seven in the UK.