Birmingham cleaning firm swept up in £4.75m deal

Fidelis, a Birmingham-based cleaning, hygiene and facility support services company, has been bought by the REACT Group in a deal worth up to £4.75m.

The deal is the maiden acquisition for listed firm REACT, and is made up of an initial consideration of £1.7m, payable as to £1.5m in cash from the group’s existing cash resources and £200,000 through the issue of new ordinary shares at a price of 2.1p per share. Added to this are deferred consideration payments of up to £3.05m, subject to the audited financial performance of Fidelis in the current financial year ending 31 March 2021.

Lloyd Ansermoz founded Fidelis over 10 years ago and will remain with the enlarged business as a shareholder and, along with his colleagues at the company.

Mark Braund, executive chairman of REACT, said: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Fidelis today, our maiden acquisition and an important milestone in our stated goal to become the country’s most trusted name in the provision of specialist cleaning, decontamination and hygiene services. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and leaves REACT well positioned to continue to increase market share.

“We have structured the acquisition such that the deferred consideration is linked to the EBITDA performance of Fidelis. We therefore intend to fund any further consideration payable from a combination of existing resources and cash generated by the enlarged REACT group post acquisition.

“The combination of our recent organic growth and the Fidelis acquisition leaves us well positioned to deliver material growth in the current financial year.

“We welcome Lloyd and the Fidelis team into the REACT group and look forward to working with them.”