MDW Capital advises Grant & Stone on arranging £124 million of debt facilities

 

MDW Capital (“MDW”) is delighted to announce the completion of its second financing of 2021, advising Grant & Stone Limited (“Grant & Stone” or the “Group”) on arranging £124 million of debt facilities, provided by Ares Management Limited and Santander.

 

Grant & Stone, a portfolio company of Cairngorm Capital Partners LLP (“Cairngorm”), is a leading builders, electrical and plumbing merchants focused on the repairs, maintenance and improvement sector and based in the Thames Valley.  Since Cairngorm’s acquisition in November 2019, Grant & Stone has grown through a number carefully selected acquisitions.

 

With a pipeline of further add on acquisitions and recognising that Grant & Stone would rapidly outgrow its existing financing facilities, the Group engaged MDW Capital to advise on enlarging them and to support its accelerated growth with further follow-on committed capital.

 

The new debt facilities were used to refinance drawn debt and finance three simultaneous acquisitions, all of which completed over a single weekend.  These acquisitions have created the largest independent builders’ merchant group in Southern England, with 74 branches stretching from West London to Cornwall, over 1,000 employees and combined revenues approaching £250 million.

 

Alex Bayliss, Cairngorm Managing Director, commented “Grant & Stone had a fantastic opportunity to acquire three great businesses and in doing so, significantly accelerate its expansion across Southern England.  All three opportunities had a very short timetable, and the funding need would see the Group outgrow its existing debt facilities.  MDW Capital has consistently delivered on our previous transactions so they were the go-to partner for this situation.  As ever, MDW Capital quickly understood the capital strategy we needed to pursue. They identified the lenders who could deliver the significantly larger scale facilities we needed at the pace required.  Their approach is second to none.  Their deep understanding of our needs as investors and of the debt markets has seen them deliver future proofed debt facilities in under five weeks.”

 

David Culpan, Managing Partner at MDW Capital, added “speed on this transaction was critical to the Group completing these acquisitions.  Our understanding of investors’ requirements, knowledge of the market and deep relationships with lenders together with our market credibility enabled us to secure early conviction on deliverability of new financing facilities.  This enabled the Group to pursue the acquisitions with the confidence that funding would be in place at completion.  The Ares and Santander teams showed real commitment to the timeline and delivered perfectly to support Grant & Stone.”