Sovereign Capital funds first major acquisition for Promanex

Sovereign Capital Limited ('Sovereign Capital') announces that it has led, negotiated and structured an £8 million investment to support Promanex Group Limited's first major acquisition and facilitate further expansion for the ambitious industrial support services company. Sovereign Capital has invested and committed a total of £3.95m in this financing round, bringing its total to £5.2m. Bank of Scotland provided debt funding.

Promanex provides a combination of industrial support services to the UK's energy, process and industrial markets with clients including blue chip customers PowerGen and Scottish Power. Sovereign Capital led and structured the original MBO of Promanex Group in December 1999 when it invested £1.25m alongside £150k from the management team.

A proportion of the new funding will be used for the acquisition of Jefco Services Limited which provides specialist support services to clients in the petrochemical sector including Conoco and TotalFinaElf. The acquisition enables Promanex to broaden its customer base in a closely related sector and develop additional specialist activities such as industrial cleaning within hazardous environments. The combined Group has sales of c.£21m and PBIT of c.£1m.

The team is headed by Mark Dixon, Managing Director, who was previously Head of UK Projects at Rolls Royce International Combustion Limited where he managed a £30m subsidiary addressing the same market. He left to start-up Promanex in 1996. The team has recently been strengthened by the appointments of Michael Fetherston-Dilke, Non-exec Director, previously a director at BET and Nightspeed Group, and Michael Taylor, Finance Director. David Dance, Chairman, previously a main board director of PowerGen plc, and Paul Morris, Commercial Director, complete the board.

Mark Dixon, Managing Director, Promanex commented:

"The acquisition of Jefco and the securing of further funds provides us with the opportunity to expand the business, further enhance the breadth of our product offering, and begin to augment organic growth with selective acquisitions. Since the MBO in 1999, Sovereign Capital have brought valuable knowledge and experience to the business and continue to be important partners in our growth."

David Myers, Assistant Director, Sovereign Capital commented:

"Having supported Mark Dixon and his team in the original MBO of Promanex in 1999, we are delighted to further invest in this business which continues to grow rapidly. Support Services is one of our key areas of sector focus and Promanex very much fits our strategy of working with proven management teams in both buy-outs and also buy and build strategies. We believe Promanex will continue its rapid growth following the acquisition of Jefco and that it is in an ideal position to take advantage of the huge opportunities available in the sector."