This long-established business has gained a leading position in the market for design, assembly and installation of specialised raising and lowering equipment for, principally, lighting systems. The central component, which provides the electrical connection to and locks and releases the lighting system, is of a unique design. The customer list includes many of the great, historic buildings of Britain including The Royal Palaces, Museums and Galleries. The owner decided to sell in order to retire.
The sale process turned in to a marathon after an agreed sale in 2008 failed to complete when the purchaser's capacity to fund was adversely affected by the recession. With the owner, we decided to take the business off the market during the economic downturn following the Northern Rock failure. It is an important part of our philosophy to advise owners when it is better to wait.
The business was placed back on the market in March 2011 and after one or two false starts with buyers we found an ideal trade buyer during 2011. For various reasons the buyer did not wish to purchase the shares and therefore we renegotiated the deal based on an asset arrangement. Depsite the fit being perfect, we were unable to achieve a price which we were happy with until we developed a performance-related 'bonus' element. The retiring owner is delighted with his buyer and is looking forward to working for up to 2 years with them.