Moebus backs Arc buyout

Mobeus Equity Partners has backed the management team of Arc and the investment is Mobeus's latest and largest from its recently raised institutional fund and its fourth in the 12 months since the fund’s first close.

Arc is Europe’s largest producer of high quality non-stick coated steel for the bakeware industry through the CCC division and the UK market leader in the production of rolled steel products for the fenestration industry through its EWS division.

The buyout will see Arc's management team taking the group into the next stage of its development.

Greybull Capital the British-based family investment office, has agreed the sale of Arc to the management.

Arc’s senior management team includes chief executive Andy Richardson, finance director Chris Manamley, CCC managing director Kevin Tranter and the managing director of EWS, Merv Richards.

Industry veteran Nick Ward will assume the position of chairman of Arc on completion. The deal was introduced to Mobeus by Ray Harris of Odyssey Corporate Finance, who represented management in the transaction.

Richard Babington, the Mobeus partner who led the transaction, said: "We are delighted to be backing an extremely high quality team at Arc. I am incredibly excited about the potential for the Group to develop its market leading positions by continuing to invest in the expansion of its operations."

Mr Richardson added: “We are delighted to partner with Mobeus in this investment. Arc is a company that is ambitious and this investment will facilitate further growth. We partnered with Mobeus because of their ethos of taking an open and clear approach and delivering on promises. These reflect Arc’s values and the relationships it seeks with its employees, customers, suppliers and all other stakeholders. Arc intends to increase its pursuit of new markets and additional acquisitions following this investment.”

The group was established to salvage parts of the Metalrax business and saved 400 jobs. It also includes TBF International in Walsall and Toospec Manufacturing Company in Luton.

Greybull acquired AIM-listed Metalrax out of administration in April 2013 and has since provided the support required to turnaround the business. As part of the turnaround plan, the company refocussed on its core businesses, disposed of non-core units and made strategic acquisitions to further strengthen tArc’s offering to its customers.

Commenting on behalf of Greybull, partner Nathaniel Meyohas said: “We are very pleased with such a successful outcome for this historic UK manufacturer following our acquisition and successful turnaround since 2013. This is testament to Arc’s dedicated team, as well as a demonstration of Greybull’s ability to bring its expertise to bear to achieve the right outcome.

Over Greybull’s four years of ownership we have invested time and resource to ensure Arc’s management had the necessary support to turn around this fundamentally strong business. We are delighted that with the support of Mobeus, the current management team, led by Andy Richardson, will be taking the business forward, further building on the strong foundations put in place in recent years.“

Mr Richardson said: “The past four years have seen a transformation of Arc into a profitable growing business, with hundreds of jobs saved along the way, all made possible by much-needed investment in our manufacturing capabilities. We are immensely excited about the next stage of our journey, which would not have been possible without Greybull’s guidance and support. We are very grateful for everything which they have committed to the business.”