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Project Neptune

Acquisition Opportunity

– Specialist in the manufacture and installation of bespoke joinery to the UK and Global Markets.

A rare opportunity to acquire a long-established, successful, dynamic, and privately-owned UK Company specialising in the manufacture and installation of bespoke joinery to a diverse range of companies operating in the following sectors:

  • Healthcare
  • Retail
  • Leisure
  • Corporate
  • Museum

The Business is led by a strong and experienced management team, and services a diverse blue-chip customer base across the UK and exports its finished joinery globally.

Services within the Business fall into two broad categories of High Volume and Bespoke Joinery.

The Company has a strong balance sheet – it is cash generative and has operated debt-free for the past twenty years.

2022 has seen total sales of £11,080,452, with a gross profit of £3,348,665 and an adjusted EBITDA of £1,859,859.

The figures forecast for 2023 are sales of £11,357,463 with a gross operating profit of £3,429,954, and an adjusted EBITDA of £1,902.

The Company has a strong and growing order book currently valued at £4Million, with orders secured globally.

The Company is a first-class manufacturer and installer of bespoke joinery to the UK and Global Markets – committed to a growth strategy with both capacity and resource.

Highlights:

  • Lean management structure – able to continue without shareholder involvement – skilled in Company operations
  • Capability to deliver complete turnkey projects
  • Leading joinery manufacturing facility; one of the finest in the UK
  • Sophisticated logistics and supply chain management portfolio in place
  • All works completed ‘in house’, no work is subcontracted
  • Non-cyclical business model offering continuity and resourcing throughout the year

Future Opportunities:

  • Strong succession plan in place, with shareholders willing to provide a long-term consultancy period post-sale, as well as having an experienced second-tier management structure
  • Strong and growing order book currently valued at £4 Million, with orders secured globally. Making Project Neptune a significant asset to any Buyer
  • The acquisition of Project Neptune allows the acquirer to tender for a broader range of projects across many industries and gives an outlet for high-quality joinery ‘in-house.’
  • An acquirer could reduce their reliance on suppliers and offer an increased service level to their Clients by capitalising on a central production facility and expand the provision of joinery services to construction and fit-out firms, and other direct competitors
  • By acquiring Project Neptune (a business that can carry out complete turnkey projects), the acquirer can distinguish itself from its competitors, enabling complex projects to be carried out using internal staff and skilled tradespeople. This gives the benefit of complete control over programme coordination, quality, and commercial issues without engaging external subcontractors

Contact mark@achieve-corporation.com for further details.

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$3.9B Move In The Public Markets

At the start of this month, KKR officially converted from a partnership to a corporation. It was the culmination of a gradual, decades-long shift that’s seen the firm become more and more interested in the public markets, in contrast to its traditionally private-markets-focused PE peers.

KKR’s penchant for exiting investments via IPO is one indication of this philosophy. And its half-decade as a backer of Gardner Denver—a period that began five years ago today, on July 30, 2013—is a prime example.

In this particular saga, the firm’s connection with the stock market began with a search for targets. Gardner Denver, an industrial manufacturer focused on flow-control products for an array of industries, had been publicly traded on the NYSE for 70 years when KKR purchased all its outstanding shares in a take-private buyout valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of debt. KKR brought in new management as part of the deal, hiring industry veteran Timothy Sullivan as CEO and president, and appointing Michael Larsen as CFO.

The next four years brought conflicting financial signals for Gardner Denver, with a decline in energy prices wreaking havoc across the industry. The company managed to grow its EBITDA margins steadily under KKR ownership, but revenue declined by some 27% between 2014 and 2016. And something had soon become clear: The debt that KKR had piled onto the company’s existing load in order to execute its buyout was proving problematic. A return to the public markets beckoned.

The company still listed nearly $2.8 billion in total obligations as of March 31, 2017, per an SEC filing. Among a list of other risks, Gardner Denver claimed that it “may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness.”

That may have played a role in the lukewarm response to the company’s roadshow. After initially seeking a price of between $23 and $26 per share for its offering of 41.3 million shares, Gardner Denver ultimately priced its listing at $20 per share for its May 2017 IPO, raising $826 million at an estimated $3.8 billion valuation. The difference between an original midpoint estimate of $24.50 per share and the ultimate $20 per share pricing amounted to some $186 million—a healthy discount from what the company’s investors had hoped for.

In reality, we should maybe use the singular “investor”: KKR owned a 98.6% pre-IPO stake in Gardner Denver and retained a 75% holding upon the offering’s completion.

The company’s stock price hovered in the low $20s for the next several months. By last autumn, however, it began to tick up—first past $25 per share, then past $30. For KKR, that meant it was time to pull out some profits.

Last November 13, the firm announced plans to offer 22 million shares of Gardner Denver; the company closed trading that day with a market cap of about $5.8 billion. KKR announced a secondary offering of another 26.6 million shares for $31 apiece in May, a sale that was set to generate some $823 million in cash. Combined, those nearly 49 million shares that KKR sold in a six-month span represent about a quarter of Gardner Denver’s outstanding stock.

In terms of the traditional buyout cycle of acquisition to exit, KKR’s deal with Gardner Denver may not have generated the sky-high profits to which the PE industry is accustomed. But by holding onto post-IPO shares and playing the stock market, the firm showed the benefits of its emphasis on both the public and private sides of the economy.

This day in buyout history: Full article