Kenmore funds Avanta MBO and £100m expansion drive.

Kenmore has funded the management buy-out of serviced offices group Avanta and provided funding for a £100m expansion programme.

The deal, financed by Kenmore's Kenmore Private Equity arm, allows Avanta founder and chief executive David Alberto to take control of a group previously owned by Alberto in partnership with private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw.

Alberto said the group planned to increase its centres under management from 280,000 sq ft of space to around 1m sq ft by 2008.

Kenmore has provided additional equity, with bank debt, which will allow the group to spend £100m on freeholds, leaseholds and developing its corporate outsourcing joint venture with Helical Bar, specifically targeting London and regional UK cities.

The transaction is Kenmore and KPE's first investment in the serviced office sector and KPE's second deal, following its investment in Jet Set, a skiwear company, in November 2006.

Alberto formed Avanta in 2004. The company operates eight business centres with an average occupancy rate of over 90%."

Avanta recently announced a joint venture with Helical Bar's outsourcing arm, The Asset Factor, to provide a new corporate outsourcing service for landlords.

The joint venture has just been appointed by Prudential to take on the leasehold liabilities for an office development in Reading to run as managed business space.

Rob Hamilton, managing director of serviced offices broker Instant Offices, said: "Avanta has built a very customer focused chain with quite a unique offering over a very short period I am not surprised that they have done this deal.

"Interest in the sector has really boomed over the past couple of years with substantial investment from various institutions into private companies and the share-price of all the quoted companies have risen significantly."