Two West Midland advisory firms have acted on the £40 million management buyout of construction firm Leadbitter Group from Heijmans NV.
Catalyst Corporate Finance teamed up with Pinsent Masons to advise the management team on the deal.
The buyout was led by the founder and chief executive of Leadbitter Group Bob Rendell, who has joined forces with Bouygues Construction, a subsidiary of the quoted French group Bouygues, to acquire Leadbitter from Dutch firm Heijmans.
The Leadbitter Group, which consists of the firms Leadbitter and Denne, has a turnover approaching £400 million and serves both the UK construction and affordable housing markets.
Mr Rendell said the future was bright for the company after the deal had been agreed.
Mr Rendell added: “This is a very exciting time for the Leadbitter Group and its employees.
“The resources and strength which will now be available to our group will place us in a very enviable position and enable us to influence and take advantage of the new private investment models that are emerging in our core sectors, including mixed tenure regeneration and zero grant developments.
“I am confident that we are now extremely well-placed to capture further market share in a number of our key areas” said Mr Rendell.
Richard Sanders of Catalyst, who led the deal, pointed to Leadbitter’s strengths.
“While it has been a difficult time for many businesses in the construction sector, Leadbitter has demonstrated a great resilience, achieving continued growth across its business,” Mr Sanders said.
“We worked closely with the management team over a long period of time to implement a highly innovative deal that provides a sound platform for the future growth of the business.
“This is also another example of our international capability, on this occasion working with our Dutch partner firm Bluemind Corporate Finance to manage a smooth cross-border transaction with a Dutch vendor and a French corporate funder.”
Andrew Hornigold, lead partner at Pinsent Masons, said the deal was evidence there was still interest in tough sectors like construction despite a difficult economic climate.
Mr Hornigold said: “We were delighted to act alongside Catalyst Corporate Finance for Bob and the team at Leadbitter on this novel deal structure.
“We were able to bring our market leading practice in the construction sector together with the strength in depth we have in the corporate market and, given the international nature of the seller and Bouygues as the investor, our credentials in international transactions, to help deliver a great result.
“It just demonstrates that well-run businesses, even in sectors such as construction, can still be attractive to long term investors.”
Other recent completed deals by Catalyst include the sales of Aston Carter Group to Allegis, Vision Security Group to Compass Group and FirstAssist to Capita as well as the MBOs of Synseal, AIM Aviation and CitySprint.
