Myhome International, a domestic services franchiser, is to add a car paintwork repairer to its portfolio after agreeing an acquisition that could be worth as much as £20 million. The group will pay an initial £16 million for Edwin Investments, which trades as ChipsAway, in a deal that includes its mobile valeting service, Professional Car Cleaning.

Myhome International, a domestic services franchiser, is to add a car paintwork repairer to its portfolio after agreeing an acquisition that could be worth as much as £20 million. The group will pay an initial £16 million for Edwin Investments, which trades as ChipsAway, in a deal that includes its mobile valeting service, Professional Car Cleaning.

This initial payment will be made in loan notes and cash, funded through a £6.7 million placing and a new £8 million debt line provided by Lloyds TSB.

The terms of the agreement include further payments of up to £4 million, depending on the performance of the acquired business.

This acquisition is part of Myhome’s strategy of building a group of franchised residential services and follows its recent takeovers of laundry, dry cleaning and ironing service Ferrum and stain removal specialist Stainbusters. Its other brands include Myhome Clean, Nicenstripy, Surface Doctor, Ovenclean, and Clean Team.

ChipsAway is a mobile service that repairs scratches, chips and other minor damage to car paintwork. It has some 400 franchisees in 13 countries including, the UK, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Russia and the Netherlands.

Myhome’s unaudited interim results for the six months to April this year showed a pre-tax profit of £700,000 from a turnover of £17 million.