Deal is the Key to WHP Projects’ growth plan
PRIVATE equity firm Key Capital Partners, has led a £3m equity investment in WHP Projects, an expanding provider of support services to the mobile phone industry.
Based in Warrington and with offices in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Bellshill, Scotland, Wilkinson Helsby Projects, or WHP as it is known, has 105 staff and in the last 12 months saw turnover rocket from £9.2m to £17m.
As part of the deal Royal Bank of Scotland has provided a term loan and a revolving credit facility to support future working capital requirements.
WHP supports mobile operators in their moves to strengthen coverage across the UK. It provides services for the deployment, upgrade and maintenance of mobile network masts, antennae and base stations for operators including Everything Everywhere, the owner of T-Mobile and Orange.
KCP’s investment will support WHP in capitalising on imminent changes in the UK mobile phone market. All major operators are investing to support the rollout of the G network. Some are consolidating estates and sharing masts to improve coverage.
KCP’s investment in WHP was led by partner Peter Armitage and director Mark Buttler.
As part of the investment, David Goldie, former chief executive of TalkTalk, has been appointed WHP’s non-executive chairman and Mr Armitage joins the board as non-executive director.
They will support the existing management team of managing director Rob Potter, operations director Paul Hullah and commercial director Martyn Cheyne.
Mr Potter said: “We have spent several years building WHP Projects into one of the leading providers of support services to mobile phone operators, nurturing key relationships and investing to ensure the business has the capacity to service the market.
“We were impressed by KCP’s approach to the deal and their sharing of our vision for the next five years of growth.
“The UK mobile phone market will see large-scale investment as infrastructure isupgraded to support wider and better quality coverage and the business is now in a great position to be part of that. With KCP’s investment and the experience of David Goldie as our new chairman, all involved with WHP can be confident and excited about our future.”
KCP partner Peter Armitage said: “WHP is operating in an exciting, fast-changing market. This investment leaves it perfectly positioned to capitalise on developments in the next three to five years, in particular the rollout of 4G across all major network providers.”
The management of WHP were advised on the transaction by Chris Froggatt and David Gardner of Convex Capital in Manchester. A team from the Manchester office of BDO, led by Chris Heatlie, provided financial due diligence advice to KCP.
Corporate partner Nicola Frost and Alastair Mackinnon of DWF provided legal advice to KCP, and Chris Moss, head of corporate at JMW Solicitors advised management. Commercial due diligence was provided by Analysys Mason.
