Social housing contractor Forrest taken over in a 2nd MBO

Social housing contractor Forrest has been subjected to a secondary management buyout deal, with a partial exit for private equity outfit LDC.

Palatine Private Equity has put in £16 million to secure a significant minority stake in the business, which will give Palatine and LDC a combined majority stake.

Santander Structured Finance and RBS contributed senior debt and working capital facilities of £26 million for the sale.

Based in Bolton and with a responsive maintenance division in Leeds, Forrest provides essential refurbishment and maintenance to the social housing sector across the North of England. It has revenues exceeding £100 million, an order book to the value of £1.2 billion and a 500-strong workforce.

Palatine managing partner Gary Tipper, partner Ed Fazakerley and investment manager James Winterbottom worked on the transaction and Tipper and Fazakerley will join the Forrest board as non-executive directors. Current Forrest chairman Robert Morgan is exiting the business.

Lee McCarren, chief executive at Forrest, said: “LDC, lead by Jonathan Bell, have been a hugely supportive partner for the business over the past six years. With Palatine alongside us as an additional investor, we can continue to drive improvements in the quality of our customer service offering, as well as developing more new and complementary service lines.”

“This on-going strategy has been the key to our many consecutive years’ growth and to our strong, long-term customer relationships.”

Established in 1955 as Herbert T Forrest, the company was rebranded as Forrest in 2010. Its social housing clients include Bolton at Home, Salix Homes and Blackpool Coastal Homes.

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