The property services provider TCL Holdings has negotiated a £10m investment from the Government-backed Business Growth Fund.
As part of the finance package, the Northampton-headquartered TCL has agreed a minority shareholding for BGF and accepted two new board members. Stuart Black, currently executive chairman at the Lakehouse Group and a former chief executive officer of the Mears Group, was introduced to the company via BGF’s Talent Network and will take over as chairman.
The Birmingham-based fund’s investment director, Mark Freer, will also be joining the board. “Our investment in TCL is a great opportunity to back management to continue the company’s excellent growth story in an increasingly favourable market environment,” he said. “Our funding is well suited to accelerate this through further strategic acquisitions in the sector and also through organic growth.”
TCL, which employs around 400 people, provides estate management and landscape installation, and design and consultancy services to private and public sector organisations across the UK. It operates under three separate brand names — TCL Landscapes, Clean Estates and Admiral Play — with a client list that includes Barratt Homes, Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes as well as managing agents such as JLL, CBRE and Savills.
The business, which is already forecast to top £30m turnover this year, was included in the London Stock Exchange Group’s “1000 companies to inspire Britain” for 2013. “We are delighted to have secured funding with long term partners to allow us to continue to build and develop TCL over forthcoming years,” commented chief executive Simon Cashmore. “Despite the economic headwind, TCL has performed extremely well over the last few years and is now ideally positioned to support increased demand from the UK property market.”
His company will also be supported by an £8.4m debt funding package provided by mid-market companies supporter Investec Growth and Acquisition Finance, whose John Clifford said: “The successful growth of companies like TCL is vital to the on-going recovery of the UK economy and it is important that they have the right support in place to achieve that. We are excited to be working in conjunction with BGF on this deal supporting an exciting business like TCL.”
The Business Growth Fund was set up in July, 2010, by members of the Government’s Business Finance Taskforce as an independent company specifically briefed to boost the growth of small and medium-sized ventures. It has the financial backing of five of the UK’s main banking groups — Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered — and has access to £2.5bn investment capital. A typical growth package would be between £2m and £10m with a minority equity stake.
