London—Dentons has advised private equity investor Rutland Partners (Rutland) on its recent investment in Aston Barclay, the independent car auction group which provides vehicle remarketing services to fleet and dealership vendors.

Aston Barclay, which currently operates from four sites in the UK, has invested heavily in recent years in both its auction sites and IT systems. Rutland's investment will be used to develop a new auction site at Donington Park in the Midlands, as well as to make further investment in its IT technology and staff.

The management buyout was overseen by Neil Hodson, formerly of HPI and Manheim, who has recently joined Aston Barclay as CEO to manage the next phase of the business's development.  Members of the Scarborough family, which has owned the business since 1984, will remain on the board and continue to be significant shareholders in the business. Laurence Vaughan, previously CEO and currently non-executive Chairman of Sytner Group, is also joining the Board and investing as non-executive Chairman.

Aston Barclay is the fifth investment from Rutland Fund III. The transaction was led on behalf of Rutland by Oliver Jones, Tristan Craddock and Jason Birt.

Dentons Corporate partners Stephen Levy and Joseph Altendorff led on the deal for Rutland, with assistance from partner Jayne Schnider and associates Verity Kent, Joseph Collingwood and Misbah Minhas. 

Dentons' UK private equity team has been working with buyout funds, venture capitalists, other institutional investors and entrepreneurs for many years, helping them to raise capital and source, finance and complete transactions around the world. Dentons has over 200 specialist lawyers globally working on private equity transactions.

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