Cavendish advises on the sale of Saitek

Published November 14, 2007

Cavendish Corporate Finance is pleased to announce the sale of Saitek plc, the leading international PC games peripheral provider, to Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. for $30m.

Saitek is a leading worldwide designer and manufacturer of PC games accessories, PC input devices, multimedia audio products, chess and intelligent games. In particular, Saitek enjoys a leadership position in flight simulation controllers and has established a strong position in keyboards for PC games. The company has offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, United States, Hong Kong and China.

Mad Catz is a leading provider of innovative peripherals for the worldwide interactive entertainment industry. The transaction is consistent with the company's strategy to diversify its product range and geographic distribution capabilities. Saitek offers both a complementary product line to Mad Catz's own range and also an opportunity to further strengthen Mad Catz's retail distribution network, particularly in Europe, where Saitek generates more than fifty percent of its revenues.

The sale of Saitek is the culmination of an 18 month working relationship with Cavendish starting with an Exit Review in May 2006. The Exit Review focused on four main areas: defining the exit strategy; reorganising the
different companies within the Group; strategically refocusing on key profitable areas and developing a restructuring plan to bring the company into profits.

Eric Winkler, owner and Managing Director, said: ''The Exit Review process managed by Caroline Belcher was very good at defining what were the priorities to exit and galvanising the management team into making the necessary changes. Without this intervention, we would not have been able to attract such interest in the market place nor have been able to achieve this price.''

Paul Herman, the Cavendish Partner who led the transaction, commented: ''We managed a sale process to include buyers from around the world making full use of our international network. We were able to identify a buyer that not only met our pricing requirements, but also provided the correct platform for the growth of the Saitek business in the future.''