YFM reaps 5.7x on Winder sale to Enterprise Ventures

Kimberly Romaine
10 January 2013

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YFM Equity Partners has sold Leeds power distribution and generation equipment manufacturer Winder Power in a ТЃ6m secondary buyout to Enterprise Ventures.

Incumbent lender Bank of Ireland UK provided debt for the deal, which sees Richard Asquith step down as chairman and Harry McCracken, former managing director of Viridian Power & Energy, take on the role.

A parallel process was run to find a buyer with Cavendish Corporate Finance and Leeds-based Sentio acting as advisers to YFM and Richard Asquith, the exiting chairman. The sale generated 5.7x YFM's original investment and an IRR of 50%.

The deal passes control of the business to a management team led by managing director Laurence MacKenzie, operations director Andy Pinkney, general manager Paul Matthews and finance director Jo Evans. Pinkney and Matthews were already shareholders in the business.

Company
Winder's divisions were set up in 1898 (Newton Derby) and 1899 (Winder Electrical), with the parent company being set up at the 2005 buyout. Winder Electrical designs and makes power and distribution transformers for use on electricity networks; Newton Derby supplies generator equipment used in the marine, rail and aviation industries.

The combined company forecasts sales of £15m and EBITA of £586,000 for the year to 31 March 2013, up from £8.9m of revenues and £670,000 EBITA in the 12 months to March 2007, the first full year figures following YFM's backing. YFM points to 2009 as a strong year, when EBITA reached £1.2m on revenues of £14.6m. Today, exports account for a fifth of Winder's sales. Earlier this year, the business completed an investment of £1m in new testing facilities.

Winder employs 100 people, a 50% increase since YFM invested in the business.

Winder's client list include SSE plc, Northern Ireland Electricity, Electricity North West, GE Energy, Inneos Chemicals, Air Products and Powerteam.

Previous funding
YFM originally bought the business from a distressed parent in 2005.

People
Nigel Owens is portfolio director at YFM. David Chell is a director at Bank of Ireland UK. Wayne Thomas and Paul Betts worked on the deal for Enterprise Ventures.

Advisers
Vendor – Cavendish Corporate Finance (Corporate finance); Sentio (Corporate finance); Irwin Mitchell, Paul Johnson (Legal),
Management – BHP Mitchells (Corporate finance); Clarion (Legal).
Equity – Pinsent Masons (Legal).
Debt – Pannone (Legal).