Lawyers at Hammonds LLP in Birmingham have advised private equity investor RJD Partners on the sale of its investment in Teaching Personnel, the specialist teacher recruitment business.

The transaction is part of the buyout of Teaching Personnel by Graphite Capital, which was announced today and values the company at £45 million. RJD Partners backed the £24 million management buyout of Teaching Personnel in July 2007. Today's exit gives a return to RJD Partners of approximately 3x its original investment.

Teaching Personnel provides supply teachers, teaching assistants and nursery nurses to schools throughout England and Wales. It operates through a national network of 32 branches staffed by recruitment consultants.

This is the third buyout of Teaching Personnel on which Hammonds has worked with the company, its previous buyouts being in 2003 and 2007. In that time the business model has adapted and developed, with the business moving from an exclusively call-centre-based service to a branch network and implementing a market-leading in-house IT system, Evolve.

Corporate partner Peter McLintock led the Hammonds team advising RJD Partners and the other shareholders of Teaching Personnel. He commented: "It is always rewarding to see our clients move on to the next phase in their development. Although the company has been through substantial strategic changes we have been able to help shape those changes and drive value throughout. This demonstrates the importance of maintaining strong relationships, no matter what the business climate appears to be."

Also advising RJD Partners and the other shareholders of Teaching Personnel were Clearwater Corporate Finance LLP (corporate finance advice) and Doug MacLeod at HMT (tax advice).

Legal advisers to Graphite Capital were Macfarlanes.