Member Article

ThinCats funds £780,000 MBO deal for property maintenance company, QAPM

ThinCats has enabled Steve Ward, the Managing Director of QAPM to complete the management buy-out of the business with a £780,000 funding deal. The four-year facility will be used to purchase the 100% shareholding from the founders and provide working capital to drive continued growth.

Mr Ward has managed the company for the past 7 years and has been successful in growing the business from £1million to £5million during this time.

Based in Dundee, Scotland and established in 2001, QAPM is an all trades property maintenance company covering the Central and North East of Scotland in the maintenance of social, private, public sector housing and commercial properties. Services include construction, development, building repair and maintenance works with a diverse range of clients throughout Dundee, Angus, Fife & Perthshire. QAPM employs 70 people; 40 directly and 30 sub-contractors.

Steve Ward said: “I had spent five frustrating months getting nowhere with the banks, so I was very pleased to be introduced to ThinCats. They showed a real interest in the business and a willingness to see the opportunity going forward; a real sea change from the traditional funding providers we had been speaking to previously. Having visited us to learn more about our business and having seen that the figures stacked up, ThinCats moved quickly to accelerate the process and completed the deal within just two months.”

Mr Ward continued; “We had received an offer from a third-party seeking to acquire the business and this inevitably put some pressure on the timescales for completion. ThinCats rose to the challenge and gave us the certainty that they would see the deal through to meet our deadline. They made decisions quickly, were responsive throughout and did exactly what they said they would do, without changing the goalposts.”

He concluded: “ThinCats has a great operating model and process and has an excellent opportunity to build its position and presence further in the SME finance market.”

Geoff O’Brien, Business Originator, Scotland at ThinCats said: “We are delighted to support Steve Ward in his MBO of the business that he has built up so successfully over the years. With blue-chip clients, a buoyant market and the investment that has been made in people and technology, QAPM is ideally placed for continued growth.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Jones .