Aliter Capital to exit Ipsum in sale to IK Partners

Min Ho
13 March 2023

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Aliter Capital has agreed to sell UK-based utilities services and infrastructure maintenance service provider Ipsum Group to IK Partners following an auction that attracted the attention of several midcap sponsors.

Ipsum is the third exit for Aliter Capital I, which held a final close on GBP 92m in February 2017. It is currently investing it Aliter Capital II, which closed last December on GBP 134m, as reported.

IK Partners will be investing in the company via its EUR 1.2bn IK Small Cap III Fund, with the existing management team expected to invest alongside the sponsor, according to a press release.

Completion of the transaction, whose financial terms were not disclosed, is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

IK took part in a heated auction process that saw it compete against Graphite Capital, Limerston Capital and Ambienta, among others, according to sister publication Mergermarket. ECI Partners and Inflexion also showed interest in the business, the report said.

DC Advisory was appointed to run an auction process for the GBP 10m EBITDA business last summer, as reported. The sale was pushed to late 2022 as the vendor wanted to see the company complete its FY22 results to reflect its strong performance, according to the report.

Company
Founded in 2017, the Chorley, UK-based group is a provider of specialist infrastructure services to highly critical assets within the UK power and water markets. It provides a range of asset maintenance, upgrade and repair services to owners of power and water infrastructure. These include low and high voltage component inspection; switchgear and transformer upgrades; overhead line maintenance and jointing; smart grid maintenance; wet well cleaning; drainage and desilting; sewer relining, patching and repairs; and CCTV surveillance and heat mapping. The company has approximately 570 employees spread across its 14 hubs, providing 24/7 coverage nationally and serving over 1,400 clients, including regulated public sector bodies, government-backed organisations and private customers.

People
Aliter Capital – Greig Brown (partner).
IK Partners – Tom Salmon (partner).
Ipsum – Richard Thomas (CEO).

Advisor
Vendor – DC Advisory (corporate finance).