A private equity firm has bought a majority stake in a fire suppression company for almost £20m.
WestBridge has completed a secondary buyout of Bury-based Alpine Fire Engineers in a deal that provided an exit for Soho Square Capital.
The private equity firm has invested £18.7m to take a majority stake through its WestBridge Fund II.
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Founded in 1992, Alpine designs, project manages and maintains complex fixed fire suppression systems across the UK.
For its latest financial year, the 12 months to the end of March 2022, the company reported a turnover of £37.9m and pre-tax profits of £3.9m.
During that year it also employed an average of 80 people.
The buyout was led by Alpine’s management team - CEO Steve Nanda, CFO Mark Jones, service and business development director Louise Plant, proposals director Rob Brennan and operations director Mark Thewlis.
The WestBridge transaction team comprised Peter Barkley, James MacLeay, Rory Whitrow and James Wakefield.
Mr Barkley said: "Alpine is very attractive business with an ambitious, credible and experienced management team.
"It operates in a niche market where growth is being driven by increasing regulatory requirements.
"Working with Steve and his team, we have also identified other significant opportunities for growth which include diversification into new sectors and strategic bolt-ons.
"We will work in partnership with management to deploy our Value Creation Model.
"As head of our Manchester office, I’m delighted that we’ve identified and backed another successful and ambitious north west business."
Mr Nanda added: "Although we received several approaches from trade buyers, we were keen to continue with a private equity partner. WestBridge stood out for a number of reasons.
"They recognised the effort we have put into establishing strong foundations on which to grow and also appreciated how hard everyone at Alpine has worked to nurture strong customer relationships.
"We were particularly impressed with the WestBridge Value Creation Model, which provides a blueprint for rigorously identifying improvements and growth opportunities in all areas of the business.
"We are genuinely excited to be entering 2023 with WestBridge at our side.
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank Soho Square Capital, and in particular David Steel and Howard Chan, for their invaluable support since we partnered with them in 2018."
WestBridge advisors
- Buyside Corporate Finance Advisory – Grant Thornton (Matthew Bryden-Smith, Amy Huddleston, Simon P Keppie)
- Debt Advisory – Grant Thornton (Craig Cheetham, Jack Price, Sarah Mackey)
- Legal – Pinsent Masons (Kieran Toal and Victoria Jew)
- Financial and Tax DD – BDO (Chris Heatlie and Matt Savage)
- Commercial DD – Armstrong (Simon Hemsley and Matt McNally)
- Sales DD – Sales Blueprint (Graeme Hall)
- Technology DD – Equator – (Chris Gauld)
- Management DD – Catalysis (Mike Hicks)
- Insurance DD – Lockton (Kevin Stout)
- ESG DD – Sustainable Advantage (James Stander)
- Tax Structuring – BDO (James Pratt, Matt Barr)
Sell side advisors:
- Clearwater International (Paul Jones, Zack Goddard, James Jarvis, Andrew Royle, Mark Maunsell and David Grassby)
- Addleshaw Goddard (Andrew Green, Daniel Rathbone and Alexander Redford)
- Grant Thornton (Carl Parker, Graham Cole and Chris Sharpe)
- Strategy& (Max Livingstone-Learmonth, Andrew MacGilp, Sam Edwards and Maddie Poulter)
Management Advisors:
- Jamieson Corporate Finance (Stephen Maxwell, Richard Brumpton and Alex Wilson)
- Blick Rothenberg (James Pilbeam)
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