Digital agency Latitude - one of the country's largest online marketing groups - briefly entered administration last week, before being pulled out by a management buy-out backed by Vitruvian Partners, its private equity owner and an existing major shareholder.
The agency, which manages campaigns in 157 countries from offices in London and Warrington, will continue to be led by its current management team, who will increase their stake in the business and say additional capital will be used "to accelerate the growth" of the enterprise.
Alex Hoye, Latitude's chief executive officer, commented that the deal secures the agency's ability to "innovate and grow" in a disruptive market, adding: "Advertisers' continued shift of expenditure to digital services provides growth opportunities for firms like Latitude in any economic environment."
In 2007, Vitruvian acquired a £55 million stake in Latitude, which was recognised as the fifth largest company on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 last September.
Commenting on the investment, Vitruvian's Ian Riley said: "The marketing services sector has had a difficult time in the last 12 months. However, Latitude is a market leader and innovator with a talented management team."
News of the management buy-out follows predictions from insolvency trade body R3 that there could be up to 28,000
corporate insolvencies in the UK during 2010.
