The company

FDM is an international IT services company which operates a unique business model whereby IT-literate graduates are provided with intensive training in a number of disciplines through the FDM Academy Programme. Once trained, the graduates gain a two-year employment contract with FDM and go on to provide in-house IT support across a range of disciplines to over 130 blue-chip clients including the BBC, UBS, Virgin and British Airways. At the time of exit, FDM had firmly established itself as the UK’s leading IT graduate employer and one of the fastest growing companies in Europe.

The Inflexion investment

Management wanted a partner to take the business private from London’s Alternative Investment Market, and then work to accelerate FDM’s growth, particularly in international markets. We were able to support this by utilising our in-country experts to drive the business’s overseas growth.

The Inflexion difference

Throughout our partnership with management, FDM consistently outperformed in its profit growth. This was achieved principally through a significant expansion of the company’s operations and geographic reach, opening operations in the US, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore during the hold period. This expansion drove a significant increase in the number of consultants from 338 operating in the UK and Europe at the time of investment to over 1,000 internationally when the business floated on the LSE in 2014.

With Inflexion’s support, we expanded both our geographic reach and breadth of service offering significantly and this strengthened operational platform made FDM extremely well-placed to capitalise on the strong growth prospects in the global IT market.

Rod Flavell,

CEO, FDM