Graphite in building products buy
Article Date: Feb 23 2009Private equity firm Graphite Capital has acquired a majority stake in timber window company Performance Window Group (PWG), which reported sales of £10.6 million last year.
Part of the firm’s investment, the value of which is undisclosed, will fund PWG’s acquisition of Oxford-based TimberWindows.com.
Markus Golser, a senior partner at Graphite who managed the transaction, says the market for timber materials is growing as people become ‘more environmentally conscious’. According to figures cited by the firm, the market for residential timber windows increased by 11.6 per cent in the four years to 2007, when it was worth £400 million.
PWG’s chief executive and chairman is Roy Wakeman, who established the company in 2006 and soon after acquired timber window manufacturer Mumford & Wood.
It is the second time Graphite has backed Wakeman in a management buy-out, having gained six times its investment when door maker LS Group was sold in 2005.
The deal continues a series of investments by Graphite into sectors that have suffered in the economic downturn following the buy-outs of recruiter Alexander Mann in 2007 and shoe retailer Kurt Geiger early last year.
Advisers on the transaction included due diligence providers Armstrong Transaction Services and Rees Pollock and law firms Olswang and DLA.
