NVM takes nuclear option with Promanex buy-out

The management team of Warwick-based industrial support services group Promanex has completed a secondary management buy-out backed by Northern Venture Managers.

Chief Executive Mark Dixon and his team have refinanced the business and provided an exit for London-based private equity house Sovereign Capital, who were advised on the sale by the Business Services team at investment banking boutique Arrowpoint Advisory Partners.

Promanex is one of the UK's leading independent players in the industrial facilities services sector, providing both soft and technical services to industrial and processing sites across the country. The group, with a turnover of 33 million, has become a leader in the provision of FM services to the nuclear power generation sector, as well as securing a powerful position in the repair and refurbishment of cooling towers.

Three years after he founded Promanex as a start-up in 1996, Mark Dixon led a management buy-out backed by Sovereign and went on to support the acquisition of Immingham-based industrial cleaning business Jefco Services in December 2001. Since that time, the group has made significant inroads into its core markets.

“While the Commercial property and construction sectors have seen the greatest consolidation among facilities services and management providers in recent years, the Industrial FM sector is proving very interesting to both strategic buyers and private equity investors,” comments Jeremy Furniss, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory.

“As independent players such as Promanex are acquired, those remaining companies that occupy specific niches and possess specialised skills are going to become increasingly rare and valuable.”

The Promanex deal follows a busy period for Arrowpoint Advisory's Business Services sector team, which arranged the acquisition of Midlands independent building services business Superior Plumbing Installations by Lyceum Capital in November 2006, and the acquisition of social housing maintenance business DC Group, also on behalf of Sovereign Capital.

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