ABEC partners with private equity for growth – Meet the M&A dealmakers
ABEC, a UK-based company specialised in building automation, has joined forces with private equity as its aims to accelerate its growth and expand its international footprint.
Established in 2004 and based in Tewkesbury, ABEC specialises in the design, installation and maintenance of building management systems and electrical power monitoring systems for data centre developers, hyperscalers, and contractors.
ABEC provides Building and Energy Management System (BEMS), Electrical Power Monitoring System (EPMS) and industrial grade SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) solutions. These solutions help its clients power their buildings, monitor energy consumption, and save on power usage.
With the arrival of Magnesium Capital, a well-known financial investor in the energy landscape, ABEC aims to embark on its next chapter of growth. Magnesium Capital is supported by DunPort Capital Management, an asset management company that provides debt capital to Irish, UK and Western European businesses.
“Our vision has always involved expanding geographically and we are very confident we can achieve this by staying true to our core values. Working with a partner like Magnesium Capital is key to helping us achieve our strategy. We’re very excited about working together over the next few years.”
Matthew Morrall, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, ABEC, said: “I am very proud of the growth ABEC has achieved over the last decade and particularly more recently over the last three years. This is credit to the wonderful team we continue to build.
Daniel Wild, Partner at Magnesium Capital, said: “We’re delighted to support ABEC on its next growth phase. Data centre energy consumption has increased rapidly in recent years, ensuring this consumption is managed efficiently is critical for all stakeholders, and in delivering the energy transition. ABEC is equipping its customers with the tools and support to manage their assets effectively over their entire lifecycle.”
The dealmakers
Corporate finance firm Shaw & Co led the sale on behalf of ABEC’s shareholders following a long-term relationship that stretches as far back as 2013 when Shaw & Co helped the company put working capital facilities in place to support its growth.
Jim Shaw, Founder and CEO of Shaw & Co, said: “ABEC has created itself a leading position in BMS and particularly systems into data centres. It was absolutely the right time to seek a partner that could support the team to capture this growth. We set out with an ambitious deal objective for great long-term clients and I am delighted to say that we have achieved this.”
The sell-side deal team also consisted of Grant Thornton (financial and tax due diligence), TLT (legal advice) and Claritas Tax (tax advice).
On the buy-side, EY-Parthenon (commercial due diligence), KPMG (financial and tax due diligence) and Walker Morris (legal advice) supported the Magnesium Capital team, while DunPort Capital Management worked with Addleshaw Goddard for the legal aspects of the transaction. The two investors also had an in-house M&A team that supported several steams of the deal.
