Beck & Pollitzer Engineering

Gresham Trust, the private equity house, has funded its third major investment in six weeks with a £28m deal for Beck and Pollitzer Engineering.

Gresham Trust has underwritten a £7.2m investment in Beck and Pollitzer Engineering in a Buy- In/Management Buy-Out Deal (a BIMBO).

Beck and Pollitzer Engineering, which has been sold by Schroder Ventures and the retiring managing director, is the UK market leader in the specialist business of installation and relocation of industrial plant and machinery and operates throughout the world. Its turnover was £28m last year.

The company has an extensive range of domestic and multi-national "blue chip" clients operating in automotive, paper, printing, pharmaceutical and other general engineering sectors.

In addition to its core activities, the company runs a fleet of 170 cranes, lift trucks and heavy haulage vehicles from its headquarters in Dartford, Kent, and depots in the Midlands and the North of England.

Jim Foxall, a former senior GKN executive with 20 years of international experience with that group, becomes managing director of Beck and Pollitzer. Michael Stone, the former Beck and Pollitzer managing director, is retiring after 40 years developing the company to its present position. The remaining key managers are reinvesting for a significant stake in the business.

Ryan Robson of Gresham Trust, who becomes a non-executive director of Beck and Pollitzer, says, "Beck and Pollitzer is an established UK market leader with excellent prospects for international expansion. We are delighted to back such a dynamic and accomplished general manager as Jim Foxall to work with the experienced existing team to develop the business rapidly."

Gresham Trust was represented in the negotiations by Ryan Robson, Paul Marson-Smith, Paul Canning, and Neil Scragg. The acquisition debt finance was provided by the Bank of Scotland whose team included Bill Crossan and Karen Bothwell. Management were advised by Simon Davies and Harry Dhand of the Southampton corporate finance boutique Dhand Hatchard Davies.

Graham Wrigley of Schroder Ventures and outgoing chairman of Beck and Pollitzer comments, "Beck and Pollitzer is an excellent company and we are proud to have been involved in the first step in the company’s independence since our original acquisition in 1994.

"We wish the management team, the employees and Gresham Trust well in the next phase of the company’s development."