Sale of Building Mechanical Services Company
The Company
A well-established 30-year-old business with long-standing clients which offered a complete package of building mechanical services for industry, laboratory gasses, pharmaceutical and HVAC building services.
Based within the Thames Valley in south-east England, the company typically operated as Principal Contractor, managing projects valuing up to £2 million.
The sales revenue for the financial year to July 2017 was c.£3.7m with a gross profit of c.20.0%.
For a full description of the business, please click here.
The Situation
The two majority shareholders (vendors) had reached retirement age and were working reduced, part-time hours for the business. They wished to exit following a successful sale and handover.
A strong second-tier management team was running the business day-to-day and overseeing its 24 employees.
The business was very buoyant, and the vendors had identified areas of significant further growth, such as expanding into the lucrative design-and-build service market and offering electrical services.
The company presented an excellent opportunity for a larger business in the same sector looking for a stronger base in the South East or for an established electrical or air conditioning company looking to diversify into mechanical services.
What Hornblower Did
As with all business sales, Hornblower was first able to target its large database of potential buyers in the appropriate sectors. In addition, we specifically researched and targeted larger companies in the mechanical and electrical engineering sectors.
Within 2 months, we had received in excess of 20 enquiries and assessed the funding arrangements of the most viable. This was followed by the coordination of meetings between the vendors and 5 of the potential acquirers through which the best all-round match was determined.
Our International Mergers & Acquisitions Director Mark Sykes led and managed the entire sales process from initial meetings with the vendor through to final offers and ‘Heads of Terms’.
After just 4 months a sale of 100% of the shares was agreed. The transition was bridged by a short handover from the vendors, prior to their retirement.
SOLD – October 2017
