GIL Investments acquisition is Deal of the Month

THE transaction which saw West Midlands private investment business GIL Investments acquire a £30m turnover industrial distributor from Saint-Gobain has been chosen as our Deal of the Month for April.

Radcliffe-based Ashworth is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of pipes, valves, fittings and associated products to the industrial and mechanical services process industries. The business employs more than 130 people and operates from a national network of six branches.

Stratford-upon-Avon-based GIL’s portfolio now consists of 13 businesses and includes seven which have been acquired from large UK or overseas corporate owners.

Jonathon Grove, investment director at GIL who led the Ashworth transaction, said: “Our strategy of acquiring non-core assets from large groups has proven successful in the past and we are enthusiastic about Ashworth’s future under an experienced and motivated management team.”

GIL, an associate of West Midlands industrial conglomerate Grove Industries, was supported in the transaction by Harrison Clark Rickerbys, which provided legal advice, Mazars, which provided financial due diligence, Business Strategy Group, which provided commercial due diligence and Harris Lamb, which provided property advice and due diligence.

Shawbrook Business Credit provided financial facilities to Ashworth.

Commenting on the Deal of the Month selection, TheBusinessDesk.com editor Andy Coyne said:  “GIL clearly remains acquisitive and will act when the right opportunities come along.

“It still carries out its our late founder David Grove’s investment philosophy of supporting good management teams and I think this is a deal of which he would have been proud.

“And it was nice to see so many local advisers involved in the deal.”

Read about all of April’s deals here .