Rubicon and Grovepoint pick up EnServe from Cinven

Alice Murray
15 January 2016

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Rubicon Partners and Grovepoint Capital have acquired EnServe Group from previous backer Cinven.

According to reports, the deal was worth around £60m. Rubicon and Grovepoint invested via their joint venture partnership; this deal marks their fifth joint investment.

Senior debt facilities for the deal were provided by HSBC's leveraged finance team in Manchester and Investec Growth and Acquisition Finance.

Previous funding
Cinven invested in EnServe in December 2010, when the company was known as Spice. According to unquote" data, the public-to-private transaction was valued at £364m.

EnServe saterted to sell off its subsidiaries in February 2011, when it sold its facilities services group to NBGI Private Equity for £9m. A year later, it sold its utility management services business to BCW Group, before offloading its mechanical and electrical training business to Pearson in April 2012, and its utility outsourcing business – Inenco Group – to Vitruvian Partners and ICG in July 2013.

Company
EnServe provides infrastructure support to the utilities sector, working with commercial, public and utilities companies. The company operates from 30 locations throughout the UK and employs 1,650 people. For the year ending 30 April 2014, EnServe generated turnover of £200m.

The business operates through three divisions. The electricity division comprises Freedom Group, which provides engineering design, installation and maintenance services to the utilities sector, working mainly with electricity distribution networks and private network owners.

The utilities division operates under the Meter-U and Metro Rod brands, and provides meter reading services to energy and water utility companies, as well as waste water drainage services to water suppliers.

Its third division is Evolve Analytics, a software provider specialising in identifying and correcting billing errors in the energy sector.

EnServe was established in 1996.

People
Grovepoint Capital – Leon Blitz (co-founder).
EnServe – David Cruddace (CEO).

Advisers
Equity - Proskauer Rose (Legal); PwC (Financial due diligence, tax).
Vendor - DC Advisory (Corporate finance); Clifford Chance (Legal); FTI Transaction Services (Financial due diligence); OC&C (Commercial due diligence); Deloitte (Tax).
Management - Macfarlanes (Legal).