£20m company is Waterland UK’s maiden investment

Pioneering technology company Gas Tag has secured a multi-million pound investment from private equity house Waterland.

The deal, which values Gas Tag at well in excess of £20m, will enable the Liverpool-headquartered business to continue to scale up rapidly both within the UK and internationally.

In return for the investment, Waterland will gain a minority stake and two of its senior team will join the board of the company.

Waterland Private Equity has been established in Europe since 1999 but only launched its UK office in early 2017.

It recently moved into larger offices in Wilmslow, Cheshire to house its growing team, which works with entrepreneurial companies across the UK and Ireland.

Waterland was this year named the top performing private equity firm in the world in 2017 by private equity analytics firm Peracs.

The Gas Tag deal is the first investment made by Waterland’s UK team.

Gas Tag was founded in 2015 by Paul Durose and Stephen Ullathorne and already has a number of high-profile customers and significant order book.

It harnesses the latest technology to help landlords, housing associations and local authorities to combat the scourge of illegal gas fitters and enforce gas safety regulations.

As soon as a physical Gas Tag is installed on the gas outlet in a property, the software platform tracks and records all of the property’s gas appliances and any gas works carried out at the property – and can only be used by qualified Gas Safe registered engineers.

Ullathorne said: “The Waterland investment will be transformational for Gas Tag. The funding and support of their experienced team will enable us to rapidly accelerate the growth of the business in the UK and internationally.

“We didn’t just want an investor, we wanted a partner and Waterland stood out as the perfect fit with our ambitions for Gas Tag.

“There is a growing acceptance across the industry that it is no longer acceptable to leave gas safety to chance. Gas Tag is unique in providing housing associations, local authorities and landlords with a real time, proactive approach to gas safety.”

Barry Sheerman, MP and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, has described Gas Tag as “the most significant quantum leap in domestic gas safety compliance in 20 years”.

Waterland UK’s managing director, Andy Scaife, and senior investment manager Ryan Hallworth, will join the board of Gas Tag.
Scaife said: “Gas Tag is a hugely exciting and innovative company, exactly the kind of business Waterland looks to invest in.

“We were impressed by the vision of the company and its senior management team. As soon as we met with Paul and Stephen and saw the impact Gas Tag was making in the industry, we knew it was an investment we wanted to make.”

Gas Tag was advised by Brabners (Mark Rathbone). Waterland was advised by Deloitte for Corporate Finance (Andy Westbrook and Tom Cooke), financial due diligence (Richard Bell and Dan Wright) tax services (Sean Beech), CIL for commercial due diligence (Seb Chambers and James de La Salle) with Hill Dickinson (David Mkhitarian and James Down) providing legal advice.