Bridges acquires GEV Wind Power from Maven

Kenny Wastell
02 July 2019

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Impact-focused investor Bridges Fund Management has acquired UK-headquartered wind turbine repair and maintenance business GEV Wind Power from Maven Capital Partners.

The sale generated a 2.7x return for Maven and brings to an end a four-year holding period for the GP.

The acquirer invested via Bridges Sustainable Growth IV, an £80m vehicle that typically invests £2-20m for majority stakes in UK businesses pursuing organic, acquisitive and multi-site roll-out strategies. The deal is the first renewable energy investment to be made from the vehicle, Unquote understands, and its third investment overall.

The transaction took place via a competitive process and Unquote understands that other private equity houses were also involved in the bidding. According to earlier reports by Unquote sister publication Mergermarket, the vendor was looking for an enterprise value of around £30m – 8x the company's pro-forma EBITDA of £3.7m for 2019. It also reported that Magnesium Capital, NorthEdge Capital and Graphite were among the shortlisted bidders.

The existing management team will reinvest for a minority stake in GEV.

Investec provided acquisition funding to support the transaction and will provide ongoing banking facilities to GEV Wind Power.

Previous funding
Maven invested £5.4m in GEV Wind Power's parent company, GEV Group, in 2015. At the time, the group comprised four divisions: GEV Wind Power, Subsea Masters, Oxifree and GEV Offshore.

Company
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Hull, GEV Wind Power provides blade repair and maintenance services to wind farm manufacturers and operators in the UK, Europe and the US. The business operates in both onshore and offshore environments.

People
Bridges Fund Management – James Hurrell (partner); Daniel Knight (investment manager).
Maven Capital Partners – Andrew Symmonds (investment director).
GEV Wind Power – David Fletcher (CEO).

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