Lancashire parking technology firm is snapped up for £235m
A Lancashire firm which specialises in number plate recognition technology has been sold for £235m.
Chorley based ParkingEye has been sold by its parent company Capita to an investment vehicle.
Capita announced that is has reached an agreement to sell the parking management business to MML Capital Partners which is owned by Macquarie.
The transaction is expected to close later this year.
Capita said the sale is in line with its strategy of simplifying the business, focusing on growth markets and disposing of non-core businesses.
ParkingEye’s underlying revenue and operating profit were £40m and £14m respectively in the year to 31 December 2017 and the business had gross assets of £22m.
In Capita’s half year results, ParkingEye will be reported as a business exit in non-underlying items. The cash proceeds will be used to reduce net indebtedness.
Jon Lewis, chief executive of Capita, said “This transaction marks a further step in executing the strategy announced in April aimed at simplifying and strengthening the business to deliver future success.
“Together with the four disposals already completed this year, we now expect to raise more than £400m from non-core disposals in 2018, well ahead of our target of £300m.”
Goldman Sachs International acted as Capita’s sole financial advisor on the transaction.
ParkingEye is the leading provider of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) enabled car park management in the UK.
The company provides car park management and enforcement services on behalf of clients across a number of sectors including retail, hospitality, education and the NHS.
Capita’s non-core disposal programme this year includes four completed transactions: Supplier Assessment Services for £160m, Capita Specialist Insurance Services Ltd for £16m, Projen Ltd for £2.75m and Medicals Direct Group Ltd for £2.7m.
