Aliter Capital says keep CALM and carry on

Aliter Capital, the specialist SME investor, has bought a majority stake in Preston-based Complete Asset Life Management Group (CALM), for an undisclosed sum.

CALM is an asset management company providing services to the utilities market and employs 82 staff.

The news comes soon after Aliter announced the launch of its new £92m fund, one of the first funds of its kind focussed on small and mid-sized businesses in the UK support services sector; and its first investment in Scottish engineering group Edwin James Holdings.

Aliter said it was attracted to CALM’s technological capabilities as well as the strength of its management team and its established presence in the North West and Midlands.

Aliter plans to use its deep industrial experience and established network to help drive organic and acquisitive growth for the business throughout the rest of the UK within the utilities services space.

Mark Popham from CALM said: “Choosing Aliter as our investment partner was the obvious decision.

“We were very impressed with how quickly they understood our business and their contacts within the support services space are second to none.

“Aliter gives us the additional capital that we need to invest in our business in order to advance through innovation and new technologies to help reduce costs for our customers and enhance our offering.”

Greig Brown, partner of London-based Aliter said: “We are delighted to have made a second investment since launching our fund last week, in this leading technology and services business in the utilities sector.  The fund is already generating significant momentum and we have a very positive pipeline of investment opportunities within the support services sector.

“In CALM, we are backing a first-class management team and we are delighted to have introduced Greg Fernie as CEO of Ipsum Group, whom we have known and worked with for some time.  We will use our network to identify off-market acquisition opportunities in order to grow this regional business into a national operator.”