The chief executive of Hamilton Bradshaw Human Capital (HBHC) has announced plans to expand the company’s portfolio of recruitment businesses.
Ian Wolter, who is also chief executive of Eden Brown, told Recruiter: “In the next six months, I want to have completed one more joint venture and one more acquisition.”

He said the time was right for expansion. “The fear has gone out of the markets,” he said. “Now is not a bad time to be doing business.”

Should the deals go through, the number of recruitment businesses owned or backed by HBHC, which include Eden Brown and Resourcing Group, would rise from six to eight.

Wolter said establishing the joint venture would begin by finding a management team with a track record of success in the recruitment industry.

HBHC would invest in the business and provide all the central support services. “This will allows the team to concentrate solely on recruitment,” said Wolter. The management would be encouraged to invest in the business. “Having a significant stake in a business motivates people in our sector beyond anything else,” said Wolter.

Referring to the planned acquisition, Wolter said he wanted the recruiter to be in the built environment, engineering or renewables, and serving the private sector. Wolter said he expected the deal would be at least on the scale of that involving Resourcing Group, which had sales of £18m.

Wolter said the “shape of the deal” was open, but could well be a rollover, where the vendor was rewarded in stages. “This is a great opportunity for someone who has run their business for some time, who wishes to cash in at a later stage,” he said.

Wolter said HBHC had established a war chest for the acquisition, but added: “If it’s more than our resources, we would just go to see James [Caan, chief executive of private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw, HBHC’s shareholder].”

The recruitment businesses currently in HBHC’s portfolio are:

• Resourcing Group - recruiting, training and managed services
• Attenti -executive search
• Caritas Recruitment - social care
• Eden Brown - technical, social care, health and not-for-profit
• Sagitta Recruitment - education, housing and social care
• Lehman Ambrose - technical, health and social