Investor becomes owner of glass group

Duke Capital has paid £2.9m to increase its stake in United Glass and become the glass manufacturer’s owner to support the company’s growth strategy.

Duke, which has been invested in United Glass for nearly six years and had a 30% stake, now owns 74% of the Aldridge-headquartered company.

United Glass has been operating across the UK since the early 1980s and has annual sales of around £30m. The group comprises Brownhills Glass, located in Walsall, Tufwell Glass in Crawley, PLG Glass, based in Peterlee in County Durham and London Architectural Glass, in Hayes. United Glass is set to bolster the group with a pipeline of acquisition targets.

Duke now retains the right, but not the obligation, to provide additional senior secured debt funding to United Glass to finance its future acquisitions with Duke’s current debt exposure being £12m.

The investor says the move aligns with its vision “to deepen its engagement with its high-performing portfolio companies” and by increasing its equity position it “reaffirms its confidence in UGG’s potential for sustained success”.

Neil Johnson, CEO of Duke Capital, said: “We have been invested in UGG since 2018 and during this time the Company has achieved significant growth and proven itself to be a highly successful partner. Their long-standing track record and strong potential for future growth means that it makes perfect sense to increase our equity stake in the business.”

Mark Harrison, Managing Director of UGG, said: “We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Duke Capital through this equity transaction which demonstrates Duke’s confidence in UGG’s growth prospects and strategy.

“The core operating team at UGG remains unchanged and is determined to continue to grow the business both organically and via M&A to generate additional future equity value for all shareholders.”