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Housing maintenance contractor Mears has agreed the sale of its share capital TerraQuest Solutions Limited for £72 million.
Mason Bidco Limited, a newly-formed company controlled by funds advised by Apse Capital Limited, is set to acquire the entire initiative in early December after the firms reached conditional agreement.
TerraQuest operates the Ministry of Housing's National Planning Portal and processes some 90 per cent of all digital planning applications in England and Wales.
Apse Capital is a London-based private equity firm that specialises in backing tech-enabled B2B information and services businesses in high-growth sectors across Europe. It was co-founded by Tim Green, Ashley Long and Vikram Krishna, who have worked together for over fifteen years, have 80 years of combined private equity experience and over the last five years have completed a total of 24 transactions in tech-enabled businesses, with an aggregate Enterprise Value of €1.5 billion.
The firm typically backs fast-growing European SMEs with an enterprise value of €50-€200 million.
David Miles, Chief Executive Officer of Mears Group, commented: "TerraQuest has been a great success story within the Mears Group. Through the provision of both financial and intellectual capital we have created a leading digital and technical services provider to the planning, infrastructure and property sectors across the UK. This transaction secures the next stage of TerraQuest's development and allows Mears shareholders to realise significant value from this investment.
"The Disposal materially strengthens the Mears Group balance sheet and completes our strategic programme to focus on our core activities of specialist Housing services to local and central government clients. We are also delighted at the support we have received from our relationship banks who, in conjunction with the Disposal, have significantly increased our covenant headroom over the next twelve months.
"Our portfolio of high-quality contracts focused on our core Housing services and the Group’s strengthened balance sheet mean we look to the future with confidence."
