Sovereign Capital announces acquisition of housing reactive maintenance provider

Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity buy & build specialist, announces the acquisition of Hudson Engineering Services Limited ("Hudson") and the creation of Kinetics Group Limited ("Kinetics").

Hudson, established in 1973, provides a wide range of maintenance services including gas, fabric, electrical and small building works. Hudson serves a number of local authorities and partners with MHS Homes to provide services to Defence Estates, an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) managing Service Family homes. Hudson's flexible approach and quality of services has resulted in a strong record of growth to date.

There are over 5 million homes managed by social landlords in the UK and the Government, through its Decent Homes initiative, is committed to raising the standard of social housing. The MOD is one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom and currently spends over £1 billion per annum on its estate, including 49,000 homes and accommodation for Service Families and 45,000 other buildings. 

Sovereign first invested in the social housing sector in December 2006 with the acquisition of Seaflame and Cameron's, two leading providers of maintenance services to the social housing sector. Seaflame is the largest gas maintenance contractor in the London market and Cameron's carries out refurbishment and fabric maintenance services. Hudson is being merged with Seaflame and Cameron's to create Kinetics, a group with annual sales of over £50 million and the critical mass necessary to secure and deliver larger contacts.

The new group brings together a strong executive management team drawn from within the individual business.  Chris Cheshire, previously the Managing Director of Hudson has been appointed Group Managing Director, Neil Williams will be Group Commercial Director and Paul Teese has been appointed as Group Finance Director.  John Pettifor, an industry specialist, has joined the board as Chairman. John has a proven and extensive track record and strong support services market knowledge.
Simon Hitchcock, Director at Sovereign Capital, commented:

"Hudson, our fourth support services acquisition in nine months, further underlines the strength and depth of our approach in the support service sector.  We look forward to working with the Kinetics Management team to continue to grow the new group through the delivery of our buy & build strategy."
Chris Cheshire, Group Managing Director at Kinetics Group Limited, added:

The creation of Kinetics through the merger of Hudson with Seaflame and Camerons creates a group that is a significant operator in our market and one of the largest specialists in building, gas and electrical maintenance. We are delighted to have Sovereign as our partner as we work with all our people to drive the future growth of the business."