Private equity-backed MBO at energy broker

An East Midlands utility energy broker has undergone a management buyout backed by private equity firm Sovereign Capital Partners.

Utility Bidder, which is headquartered in Corby and has a sales office in Manchester, employs over 100 staff and currently brokers energy and other utilities contracts to over 14,500 SMEs.

The new management team is led by an chief executive, Chris Shaw who is joined by Mark Wood, formerly chief executive of Axa UK, as non-executive Chairman. Founders James Longley and Sally Martin remain with the business, Longley as Utility Bidder’s managing director.

“We are delighted to have Sovereign’s backing,” said Shaw. “We operate in an exciting market with great opportunities. Sovereign has a tremendous track-record of backing high-quality growth businesses that have the potential to significantly scale-up. We look forward to further developing our product offering and growing our client base with Sovereign’s investment and partnership.”

Jeremy Morgan, partner at Sovereign, said, “We are very pleased to be supporting this business and strong management team in what is a burgeoning market. Utility Bidder has already achieved tremendous success and enjoys established relationships with both its SME customer base and its energy suppliers. We look forward to working with Chris and the team to help take this top ranked energy broker to the next stage of growth.”