Entu offloads facades company for £200K

HOME improvement group Entu (UK) has agreed to sell its subsidiary Astley Facades near Wigan for £0.2m.

The business is being bought by Duality Group which has offices on Merseyside.

Entu says the disposal is in line with its strategic focus on improving the performance of, and driving growth in, its core home improvements business.

Astley specialises in exterior wall insulation, render and specialist cladding for new-build construction and the refurbishment of existing stock.  

Since being acquired by Entu in March 2015, Astley has grown its order book significantly. 

However, in line with the general direction of the specialist facades market, Astley is increasingly engaged as a subcontractor on a number of large, long term, construction contracts which is, typically, lower margin business and not in line with Entu’s core customer base and specialisms.

The Group issued a trading update on October 11 stating that EBITDA from continuing operations before exceptional items was expected to be in the range of £3.6m to £4m. 

Astley’s EBITDA up to the point of sale is expected to be £1.1m. Thegroup now expects EBITDA from continuing operations and before exceptional items to be in the range of £2.5m to £2.9m.