An English venture capital group has taken control of a Dundee precision engineering firm after ploughing £3.5 million into a management buy-out.
Kent-based Foresight Group said it had provided financial backing to a buy-in management buy-out move for Aerospace Tooling Ltd, a firm specialising in the refurbishment of high-value aerospace and industrial gas turbine components.
The deal, which sees ATL founder and chief executive John Seaton move to become executive chairman, gives Foresight a majority shareholding in the Baldovie Industrial Estate business.
The Sevenoaks-based company was founded by current chairman Bernard Fairman with business partner Peter English in 1984. It has three specialist teams investing in the private equity, infrastructure and environmental sectors in the UK, US and Italy.
It has more than £750m of assets under management and its stated aim is to provide increasing dividends and capital appreciation for investors over the long term.
The ATL investment involves three of Foresight’s venture capital trusts, and two new faces Fraser Clarkson and Ben Blackwall are joining the company’s board respectively as finance director and business development director.
John Green, the current general manager of the Dundee facility, has also been appointed as operations director under the new regime.
Mr Seaton said he was delighted that Forersight had come on board and would be helping to shape the company’s future.
“Foresight shares our passion and enthusiasm for the products and services we provide and for the sector we serve.
“In Foresight I am confident that we have found the right partner and we have the right structure in place to deliver the future growth plans for our business. We look forward to a profitable partnership.”
Darrel Connell, senior investment manager at Foresight, said he was confident ATL would prove a worthwhile addition to a portfolio that had delivered shareholder returns of £96m in the past five years.
He said: “We are looking forward to working with John and the new management team at ATL, accelerating the growth of this dynamic business which has proved its resilience in recent challenging market conditions.
“This transaction continues to build the deal flow momentum at Foresight.”
ATL has been operating in Dundee since late 2007, when it took on the Piper Street facility from Wood Group following a decision by the Aberdeen-based energy services giant to close the factory after years of accrued losses. Around 80 jobs were saved in the process.
ATL made a profit after tax of £527,000 on revenues of £6.32m in 2011, but the firm’s directors declared themselves “disappointed” by the company’s performance in the period to June 30 2012 the most recent period for which accounts area available when profits fell to just £56,000 on turnover of £5.23m.
Much of the losses stemmed from the sale of its loss-making Gillingham facility, which was sold off for almost £900,000 below book value.