Background

Headquartered in Bedfordshire, Stonbury Holdings has a 40-year heritage of working with UK water companies and environment agencies to provide low-carbon services to maintain, repair and refurbish their critical assets, from drinking water provision to wastewater treatment, helping to protect supplies and extend asset lives. The national company employs about 300 people across 11 locations in the UK. FRP was approached to support private equity firm LDC after they had secured preferred bidder status in a competitive auction process run by the sellers. It recorded revenues of £44.7 million in the year to June 2022.

Action

FRP Corporate Finance were approached to provide buyside advice and debt advisory services to LDC. The FRP teams’ advice encompassed valuation analysis, market mapping for acquisitions, detailed financial modelling and exit analysis. The debt team ran a competitive debt process sourcing multiple offers of finance for the deal with differing structures and attributes. Ultimately there were several lenders, but the FRP team negotiated an improved package with one of the lenders
which resulted in that party being given exclusivity.

Outcome

LDC obtained a very competitive debt package to support the acquisition of Stonbury against a backdrop of rising interest rates and uncertainty in the markets. The other analysis and support FRP provided allowed the debt to progress smoothly and ultimately to a successful conclusion.