Gresham swoops for LAS
A HIGH-tech insurance claims handling business, which has a Yorkshire parent company, has sold a majority stake to private equity house Gresham for £12.3m.
Lanes Assistance Services, which is based in Eccles, Salford, handles household claims on behalf of insurance companies such as Fortis. It has a network of contractors covering all trades.
Its unique technology allows settlement times to be slashed to just four days from the industry norm of 29 days.
The time for repairs to be completed has also been cut to an average of 16-33 days rather than 38 to 75 days.
LAS, which employs 45 at its Eccles call centre and head office and 30 at a site in Birmingham. The company, which was only formed in 2007 has grown turnover to £20m.
Its parent company is based in Leeds.
Its management has retained a 30% stake, which Gresham Private Equity has taken 70%.
Andy Marsh, partner at Gresham PE’s Manchester office led the deal. He said: “LAS is a really good business and one we have been tracking for some time. It has a compelling offer for its customers in its ability to drive out cost in the claims management cycle.
“Gresham has considerable experience in the insurance sector with our investments in Giles and Ansa and we’ve been looking for the right opportunity to get back in.”
LAS grew up out of Leeds-based drains specialist Lanes Group, the UK’s largest independent drain cleaning and repair group.
The firm’s most recent deal was the £20m buyout of the entertainment division of the AIM-listed Formation Group to creating the James Grant Group.
Advisers included law firm Cobbetts, which advised LAS management, Partner Sean FitzGerald led a team which included Vicky Zivkovic and Laura Lovell.
DLA Piper, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dow Schofield Watts were also involved.
Russell Bateman, a corporate solicitor at Pearson Hinchliffe, acted for the vendors.
