When it comes to loud brands, amplifier designer and manufacturer Marshall must be one of the loudest globally – certainly louder than the competition – which explains why it’s getting a lot of international attention, says Jason Sinclair.
An iconic British brand is acquired from a group of Swedish-French private equity co-investors by the newly-established London-based arm of a Chinese private equity firm, which was previously a subsidiary of an east-coast US private equity giant. It sounds like a hypothetical scenario with an exam question on US tariffs at the end of it. But it’s not.
Even if you aren’t particularly interested in rock music, you may well at least recognise the Marshall brand. The history of rock would be different without its founder, Jim Marshall. Nicknamed the ‘Father of Loud’, he was making amplifiers in his small music shop in west London when, legend has it, The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend came and – frustrated by both the high price and lack of power of imported Fender amps – asked Marshall to create something louder so he could be heard over his competing bandmates.
And so the Marshall stack was born – literally Marshall’s amplifiers piled on top of each other. The guitar-based heavy sound of 1960s and 1970s rock was built on having stacked Marshall amps behind the bands – and in the 1984 spoof rockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap, when the band needed an amplifier to “turn up to 11”, it was a Marshall amp.
Marshall is an enduring British company, which still has its design and manufacturing base in Milton Keynes. But it is also an international success story, and over the past five years its ownership has reflected that. The 2023 acquisition by Sweden’s Zound Industries (which previously licensed the Marshall brand for headphones and speakers) saw the creation of Marshall Group. Later the same year, Swedish private equity firm Altor led a consortium that included Swedish VC firms Zenith and Telia, along with Paris-based and Rothschild-backed Time For Growth, in acquiring a majority stake in Marshall Group.
Opportunity knocks
Two years later, Altor led the investors back out. In January 2025, it sold its shares to HongShan Capital Group (HSG) – the one-time Chinese subsidiary of Sequoia Capital, which is now ramping up its investments in Europe from a London office that was opened last year. The deal valued Marshall Group at €1.1bn.
Andreas Källström Säfweräng, a partner at Altor who sat on Marshall Group’s board during ownership, says: “When we came in, Zound Industries and Marshall Amps had only recently merged. The management team had already worked through the plan with regards to the merger and the board’s role in this was to monitor the progress of the integration project. During Altor’s involvement with Marshall a lot of the board’s focus was to support and push the product category expansion plan that is in the making. During this period, the company was also able to continue to grow revenues.”
This “product category expansion” – sweating the brand, or, in Altor’s words “a solid product pipeline for both existing and new categories” – has moved beyond speakers, amplifiers and (with the help of a partnership with Zound that predated the merger) headphones and on to Marshall-branded beer, gin, fridges and even handmade jukeboxes. In partnership with Mini and BMW, you can now buy Marshall-branded motorbikes and cars. This has led to turnover doubling since 2020 to more than €400m for the group, which has 800 employees covering 90 markets.
Marshall is an iconic brand. It is already winning at so many levels. We came in to support that journey
Säfweräng says that Marshall “fitted perfectly into our consumer sector franchise focusing on iconic brand journeys. Marshall is an iconic brand. It is already winning at so many levels. We came in to support that journey and look for ways to unlock hidden opportunities and growth potential. Our track record has helped us build an experience that can hopefully add value to the teams we support.”
The investment was originally designed to be longer. “When we invest in a company, it is always with a perspective of owning the business over a four to seven-year time period, and that was also our approach when we initially invested in Marshall,” says Säfweräng. But HSG’s early interest changed that. “Sometimes it turns out that the next best home for a business appears sooner than initially expected”, he says. “This was exactly the case for Marshall. HSG is a very logical next owner for Marshall Group, being a very established investor – previously Sequoia Capital in Asia – well connected in the Asian marketing landscape, which represents a core region for Marshall.”
Full house
The deal involved a plethora of advisers – 28 partners and associates from Taylor Wessing alone were tasked with advising Marshall Group. It has been reported that financing came from euro term loan financing arranged by UBS and HSBC, in a rare example of a consumer-focused name to the new-issue market. HSG has also been previously unknown as a sponsor for European leveraged finance investors, but – with the institution of a London office – this may be about to change. Certainly, the thawing of economic relations between Europe and China, partly forced by the new difficulties of investing in the US, presented an opportunity for Chinese capital to re-enter the market, at least in sectors with minimal regulatory complications.
World tour
How that world, now reshaped by tariffs, pans out only time will tell. Regardless of that, Marshall is an extremely strong brand globally. HSG opened its London office in late 2024 to “facilitate connections in Europe”, according to a message from the incredibly (perhaps understandably) publicity-shy investors.
Led by Chinese venture capitalist and entrepreneur Neil Shen, HongShan is trying to adjust its course after Sequoia Capital split its China and US operations due to geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The firm has invested billions over the past decade into Chinese companies, including AliBaba and ByteDance. With cross-border opportunities for investments in more sensitive tech companies being limited, the Chinese VC money may be looking to less controversial retail brands with opportunities for geographic growth – and Marshall fits that bill.
Over 60 years into our journey, the pioneering sound of Marshall continues to resonate across the world
Terry Marshall, the Father of Loud’s son, who helped him build his first amps, still sits on Marshall Group’s board and the family retains a 20% shareholding. As Terry says in HSG’s press release, the deal means that “over 60 years into our journey, the pioneering sound of Marshall continues to resonate across the world. Together with HSG and our team, we can further build on our history to amplify the love for music and the Marshall brand for decades to come.”
Taro Niggemann, managing director for Europe at HSG, says, “Our mission is to support Marshall in unlocking its full potential by leveraging our expertise in digital channels and supply chain optimisation. We aim to help bring Marshall’s exceptional products to even more customers globally while embracing and celebrating the spirit that has defined the brand for generations.”
Jeremy de Maillard, who was Zounds’ CEO, retained his role in the Marshall Group under Altor and will continue under HSG ownership. He also pointed to Marshall’s “iconic status”.
Turning the investment dial up to 11 might be a bit ambitious in the current global market but, like Pete Townshend, dealmakers who can’t get their hands on American imports may be tempted to ask for something over here that’s also that little bit louder. It has worked for Marshall.
Talent scout
Previously investing predominantly in Asia, in 2024 HSG was estimated to be managing about $56bn in assets, raising around $9bn in 2022 from pensions, endowment funds and family offices worldwide. But the problem has been deploying that capital in a sluggish Chinese market and a restrictive American one. The Financial Times reported that HongShan has invested only 10% to 20% of its two later-stage funds, both sized at $3.6bn, giving it four to five more years to deploy those funds. Former Goldman Sachs banker Taro Niggemann has been hired to scout for deals in the UK and Europe to add to activity such as the $430m fundraising round for online bank Monzo and the investment in the Germany-based Green Energy Origin, a battery materials start-up. It also holds a roughly 9% stake in fast-fashion company Shein, which is targeting a London listing.
