From 48 Hours in Melbourne to an 11x Payday
Pete Barkley tells all on WestBridge’s APEM Adventure
Hello Rainmakers,
The private equity playbook is that the raw investment of time and money into a business is said to change the company that’s been invested in.
But Pete Barkley’s career highlight investment in environmental consultancy group APEM has also changed WestBridge, the private equity investor he joined in 2019, to set up the Manchester office, and where he is now a partner.
What follows is a fascinating journey into this bloke’s career, but a real shift in the lower mid-market investment field.
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When Pete Barkley says private equity is a “partnership business,” he means it so literally that he once flew to Melbourne for just 48 hours.
“I did,” the WestBridge private equity partner says, almost laughing at the madness of it. “I went to Melbourne for 48 hours, which was reasonably challenging… It was horrific, to be honest. It was a great trip… myself and Guy (Davies, the managing partner), jumped on a plane to go and give them that reassurance and tell them about our partnership with APEM, which then proved to be a really transformational piece of the puzzle.”
The mad dash to Australia was all about cementing trust between Dr Adrian Williams and Dr Stuart Clough at APEM, and the owners of Biosis, the flagship acquisition that would anchor APEM’s expansion Down Under. That trip, in hindsight, feels like the perfect metaphor for WestBridge’s six‑and‑a‑half‑year journey with APEM: intense, high‑stakes, exhausting—and ultimately spectacularly rewarding.
APEM has now been sold to Spanish group Applus+ for 11 times WestBridge’s investment. For Barkley he says that it’s been the standout return of his career; but it’s also a deal that’s effectively reshaped WestBridge itself.
“APEM is the Reason I’m at WestBridge”
Prior to joining WestBridge, he’d worked as a corporate finance advisor with DSW, specialising in advising management teams, both buy and sell side, having qualified at BDO.
“APEM was actually the reason I’m at WestBridge,” Barkley says. He advised WestBridge on acquiring the business while at DSW, and out of that deal came an invitation to set up WestBridge’s Manchester office and join the board of APEM. “The rest is history, I guess,” he deadpans.
