Venture capitalist 3i today took its place among the front-runners in the £300mauction of Rentokil’s conference centres.

The buyout group today backed a £180m takeover of Hayley Conference Centres and signalled it was interested in funding more deals for the group, thought to include Rentokil’s Style Conferences business.

3i is putting £41m into the Hayley deal, backing the acquisition from L&G Ventures, another private equity firm, which claimed to be more than doubling its money on the investment it made when it bought the company in 2000.

3i is familiar with the operation after finding the original management buyout of the business in the early 1990s before selling it to L&GV. Hayley has eight conference centres in the Midlands and South-East and has plans for UK and international expansion.

Rentokil today said the sale of its Style Conferences operation was continuing ‘on track’ and that the original 20 interested parties had been whittled down significantly. 3i is among the survivors in the current stage.

Posted: 09|30|05 at 7:50 am. Filed under: UK News.