Maven Capital Partners leads £20 million MBO of window and door hardware firm

Mid-cap private equity house Maven Capital Partners has led the £20 million management buyout (MBO) of UAP Limited.

The transaction, which includes an equity investment of £8.7 million from Maven and an undisclosed reinvestment from the senior management team, will enable UAP to grow with an expanded product range and entry into new markets. The deal may also include strategic bold-on acquisitions.

What is UAP?

Manchester-based UAP, founded in 1996 supplies and distributes door and window hardware across 3,000 product lines and exports to 25 different countries and acquired companies Fullex and CitySafe in 2016.

The deal is Maven’s second investment from its new buyout fund, having earlier this year led an investment in plastic fabrication company McGavigan.

The company say that increasing regulation and the tightening of fire safety standards in the house building sector is driving more demand for its products.

Further reading on buyouts

Andrew Ferguson, Partner at Maven said ‘Maven is led by a highly experienced management team who have big ambitions for the business to become the clear market leader… We are excited to support UAP in in its growth strategy.’

David Jennings, CEO at UAP, added, ‘In order to realise our huge growth ambitions it was vital to us that we aligned ourselves with a pro-active private equity house who shared our vision… Our goal now is to repay the faith placed in us by Maven.

Financial due diligence was conducted by Grant Thornton UK LLP and commercial due diligence was carried out by Armstrong Transaction Services.