Alpine Fire Engineers in secondary buyout
Private equity firm WestBridge has completed a secondary buyout of Alpine Fire Engineers, specialist providers of mechanical fire suppression systems.
The transaction provides an exit for Soho Square Capital and sees WestBridge invest £18.7m to take a majority stake in the company. Soho Square have made four times their original investment since the bought the business in 2018 from the Smith family that founded the business in 1992.
Headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, Alpine design, project manage and maintain complex fixed fire suppression systems across the UK. Customers are in the logistics sector, food and beverage, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and retail. Turnover in financial year ending 31 March 2022 was £38m.
The buyout was led by Alpine’s chief executive Steve Nanda, and his management team (pictured) of Mark Jones (chief financial officer), Louise Plant (service and business development director), Rob Brennan (proposals director) and Mark Thewlis (operations director), who have all been instrumental in driving the company’s growth over the last few years.
Peter Barkley, director at WestBridge, who led the investment team on the deal said: “Alpine is very attractive business with an ambitious, credible and experienced management team. It operates in a niche market where growth is being driven by increasing regulatory requirements. Working with Steve and his team, we have also identified other significant opportunities for growth which include diversification into new sectors and strategic bolt-ons. We will work in partnership with management to deploy our Value Creation Model. As head of our Manchester office, I’m delighted that we’ve identified and backed another successful and ambitious north west business.”
Steven Nanda, who joined the business when Soho Square originally invested, led the MBO, and said he had been approached by trade buyers as Soho Square sought to sell their stake in the business but private equity was his preferred option.
“WestBridge recognised the effort we have put into establishing strong foundations on which to grow and also appreciated how hard everyone at Alpine has worked to nurture strong customer relationships.”
