Listed private equity fund Oakley Capital Investments (OCI ) has received a boost from the sale of legal tech platform vLex to Canadian rival Clio at a $1bn (£700m) valuation.

The transaction, announced earlier this week, equates to a 4% uplift in OCI’s end-of-March net asset value (NAV) and should generate proceeds of around £30m.

OCI, via the Oakley Origin Fund, will partially reinvest in the combined business.

Responding to the deal, Deutsche Numis analyst Ewan Lovett-Turner commented: ‘This is an impressive exit, given the position was valued at just over 1% of NAV in December 2024, implying over 300% uplift since then.

‘We presume this was the potential exit that gave the board confidence to increase the size of the buyback from at least £20m to £50m in 2025.’

Deutsche Numis is OCI’s corporate broker. 

The sale offered good news for shareholders following a lacklustre period for OCI. It had performed well during the pandemic but performance has been muted over the past 18 months as exits stalled.

Shareholders have seen a 38.6% return over the past three years, while the underlying portfolio return has been just 14.3%, well below global markets. 

The fund currently trades at a 28% discount, which the board is hoping to narrow. Back in March, it scrapped OCI’s ‘nominal’ dividend in favour of using spare cash to buy back what it described as its ‘grossly undervalued’ shares. The closed-end fund’s last buyback had been in 2022.

Trio of new investments

Separately, OCI has announced £15m of investments into premium brands Smythson of Bond Street, which specialises in leather bags and stationery, homeware and furniture business Fornasetti, and Fabbrica Pelletterie Milano (FPM), the luggage and leather goods brand.

This was done via Oakley’s Iconic BrandCo platform, which includes other names like Italian design business Alessi and luggage maker Globe-Trotter.

Oakley said it aims to grow Smythson, Fornasetti and FPM by accelerating their international expansion, digitising operations and investing in digital marketing.