The management and employees of recruitment consultancy Parc have bought back a quarter of the company from venture capital investors in a deal which values Parc at around #49 million (£39 million).

The share-holding has been purchased from the British venture group HgCapital - formerly Mercury Private Equity. It will see the stake of management and staff in the company rise to 74 per cent while Hg's interest will fall from 48 per cent to 24 per cent. The buyout has been funded through senior debt from Ulster Bank and mezzanine finance from AIB Capital Markets.

Parc chief executive Mr Peter Keenan said that about 120 of Parc's staff had shares or options in the company. He said HgCapital had given no indication as to how long it would retain its remaining 24 per cent stake. "This buyout was as much at our instigation as theirs," he said. HgCapital provided the financial backing for the successful management buyout of Parc from Aer Lingus in 1995. Mr Keenan said Parc's earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) for the year to March 2001 would be broadly similar to the £4.6 million EBITDA the company generated the previous year. He said this was a strong performance given the difficulties that many recruitment companies suffered over the past year.

Until two years ago, Parc had considered a stock-market listing, but Mr Keenan said that this was unlikely for the foreseeable future. "We would need to be a multiple of our current value before we could even consider an IPO. We haven't ruled out an IPO but I can't see it happening in the short to medium term," he stated.