Endless acquires Essential Fleet Services

Endless LLP is pleased to announce that it has supported the management buyout of Kier Group plc’s Fleet and Passenger Services business (‘FPS’) at a headline value of £17.9 million.  FPS is a leading provider of a diverse range of specialist and essential vehicle contract leasing, fleet management and passenger services to public and private sector clients across the UK.  The newly formed company will now trade as Essential Fleet Services (‘Essential’) and it has entered into a new five year agreement to provide Kier with fleet services to its local authority highways and utilities businesses.

FPS has developed an efficient fleet management and funding model due to its extensive knowledge, experience and scale in the supply of specialised vehicles.  A Lincoln-based company with operations spanning the North West, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the South East, the company traces its roots back to TransLinc, founded in 1998, and was originally acquired by Kier following its acquisition of May Gurney in 2013.  The business has a turnover of approximately £43 million and more than 500 employees.

Ray O’Toole, Managing Director, and David Liston, Operations Director, led the management buyout.  Mr O’Toole said, “This is a really exciting time for our company and for our people and we are delighted to have Endless as our new partner.  Endless was immediately aligned with the growth ambitions of the management team and the future for Essential feels very bright.  We are also grateful to Kier for enabling us to quickly deliver this buyout once it was clear that Essential did not fit with its core strategy.”

With a focus on transformational investment in mid-market businesses, Endless LLP has an unrivalled track record in non-core buyouts from large corporates.  Having raised a new fund of £525 million in late 2014, Endless has had a busy first half of 2015, recently announcing that it had supported management buyouts at High Street TV, a multi-channel retailer, Adare Group, a specialist communications group, Ink Global, a travel media business, and FMG, a specialist in fleet incident management.  Endless also completed its first investment in France recently with the non-core acquisition of Charpentes Francaises from Wolseley plc. 

Mathew Deering, Partner at Endless, commented, “As soon as we became aware that Essential was non-core to its parent’s strategy, we knew we wanted to back Ray, David and the team in the transition to an independent business.  We are delighted to have partnered with Kier to become the new owners of a strong and well-invested business with an attractive long term growth plan, and we look forward to working with Kier as a valued customer to Essential moving forward.”

The company has unveiled a fresh new brand which represents the ‘essential’ nature of the vehicles and services it provides, which it believes will help further develop its market presence and profile.

Endless was advised by Eversheds (legal), PwC (pensions and debt advisory) and KPMG (tax) and the MBO team was advised by Sentio Corporate Finance, Squire Patton Boggs (legal) and Deloitte (tax).  Kier Group plc was advised by Deloitte and Dentons, with vendor due diligence provided by Grant Thornton.