Cross border acquisition for equipment hire group

Harrogate-headquartered tool hire specialist, Vp, is acquiring a majority interest in Charleville Hire and Platform Ltd.

CPH is a specialist powered access companies principally servicing the pharma, renewables, technology and food ingredient sectors. It is a family-owned and run business with a strong management team and is based near Cork in the Republic of Ireland.

Total consideration for the entire share capital of CPH includes an initial cash consideration of €12.1m/£10.1m.

Vp has acquired 90% of the shares in CPH, with the remaining 10% to be acquired over a three-year period.

Subject to business performance against stretching EBITDA targets, a further maximum deferred and earn out payment of €21.7m/£18.2m may be payable across the second and third anniversaries of the acquisition.

The acquisition will be funded from Vp’s existing debt facilities and cash resources.

Anna Bielby, chief executive of Vp, said: “This acquisition is exactly in line with our renewed strategic focus on building our highly differentiated, specialist customer offering.

“CPH brings to the group a market-leading powered access fleet in a growing Irish market while complementing our existing divisions.

“The CPH management team has a track record of successfully growing the business and, with the opportunities that exist in the Irish market, we believe they are well placed for further expansion in the future.”

For the year ended 31 December 2023, CPH generated unaudited revenue of €9.5m/£8m, EBITDA of €5.7m/£4.8m, and profit before tax of €2.3m/£1.9m. It has unaudited gross assets of €13.9m/£11.6m.

Key members of the CPH senior management team will retain a minority interest and remain fully committed to the business.

CPH has 30 employees and offers a diverse portfolio of machinery, the majority of which is zero emissions at the point of use.

It operates out of a single location in Charleville and has a large number of blue-chip customers.

A cross-border UK and Ireland team at Interpath provided financial and tax due diligence services, alongside tax structuring and SPA support, to Vp on its acquisition.

The team was led by transaction services managing director Louise Smith, who was supported by Russ Worrall, Arpit Desai, Saiful Khan, Liberty Bignal, Katie Hinton, Andrew Fowler in the UK and Denis Herlihy, James O’Hagan, and Catherine Keogh in Ireland.

Squire Patton Boggs also acted for Vp. The law firm’s advisory team included George Kennedy and Ciara Downes from its Dublin office, along with Josh Astill-Headley and Hannah Kendrick from its Leeds office.

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