Investment into Ello Group Holdings Limited by DragonPass International Ltd

BDO provided financial, tax and commercial vendor due diligence to Ello Group Holdings Limited ahead of the investment by DragonPass International Ltd. DragonPass replaces Bridgepoint Group.

Ello Group is a leading UK rewards and membership platform, owning well-established consumer brands including tastecard, Gourmet Society and Coffee Club. The group operates a diversified loyalty model spanning direct-to-consumer memberships, B2B partnerships with financial institutions such as Lloyds Bank, and employer benefits distribution.

The sale to DragonPass Group, an international loyalty and rewards platform, represents a strategic expansion of DragonPass's UK and European footprint and underscores the increasing relevance of rewards and loyalty propositions during a period of sustained consumer financial pressure.

BDO's team supported Ello Group's management and its private equity backer, Bridgepoint, throughout the transaction process. The commercial due diligence assessed the resilience and scalability of Ello's business model across its core revenue channels, evaluating overlap and cannibalisation risk whilst examining the sustainability of Ello's value proposition within a rapidly evolving rewards landscape. 

The financial due diligence team provided vendor due diligence services, including analysis of the core drivers of Ello's primary revenue channels and assessment of underlying performance metrics, followed by targeted top-up diligence engagement with DragonPass to address their key focus areas. Tax due diligence completed the integrated vendor support package.
 

BDO provided excellent financial, tax and commercial due diligence support throughout our sales process. The team were proactive, responsive, and highly collaborative, bringing strong sector insight and a clear focus on the key value drivers of the business.

Their joined-up approach across the different diligence workstreams was particularly valuable in ensuring issues were addressed thoroughly and pragmatically as they arose. The quality and clarity of BDO’s outputs were instrumental in supporting constructive discussions and decision-making, and it was a pleasure working with the team. We would happily recommend BDO and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Matt Peters, CFO, Ello Group Holdings Limited

 

"Having worked on Ello's previous transaction in 2015, observing their evolution up close on this deal has been particularly insightful. The business has successfully transitioned from a traditional card-based membership model to a sophisticated digital platform spanning direct-to-consumer, B2B partnerships and employer benefits distribution. The loyalty and rewards sector has always been innovative and with Ello now alongside DragonPass I have no doubt more success will follow."

Tom Holt, Partner, Strategy & CDD

 

The BDO project team included:

Andrew Howson, Sophie Kasiri, Ben Brown, Declan Gold, Jack Polak (Financial due diligence)
Brad Payne, James Cameron, Amy Hoare, Joe Thorley (Tax)
Tom Holt, Archie Fitzherbert, Lucy Cole, Ishita Rahul, Ashley Low, Mina You (CDD)