Dunedin, the UK mid-market private equity house, has invested in the secondary buyout of Weldex Holdings Limited in a deal which values Weldex at over £100m Enterprise Value. Dunedin has backed the existing owners, Dougie McGilvray and his family, to continue their expansion of the business.
Weldex, the largest crawler crane hire company in the UK, has a large fleet of crawler cranes including the two largest crawler cranes in the UK, 1,350 tonne capacity Liebherr LR11350’s. Their cranes have been used in a number of the UK’s largest construction contracts including Heathrow Terminal 5 and the iconic arch on the new Wembley Stadium. The company is well placed to benefit from the rapid growth in offshore wind farm developments and UK power station construction and decommissioning.
Weldex was established in 1979 by CEO, Dougie McGilvray, and has grown into the UK’s largest crawler crane hire company. Weldex employs 102 employees and operates nationwide and overseas from its headquarters in Inverness and its depot at Alfreton. The company also supplies associated lifting equipment including wheeled cranes, forklifts, lorry loaders and trailers.
Mark Ligertwood, who led the deal for Dunedin and who joins the board of Weldex, comments: “We have tracked the progress of this business for a considerable time and have been impressed at the way it has continued to grow through the recession by focusing on large, complex infrastructure projects and the offshore wind power industry. Weldex is the clear market leader in its field and the accomplishments of Dougie and his family were the key factor in our decision to make the investment. Weldex is extremely well positioned to play a vital role in the construction of new offshore wind capacity over the next 20 years. With strong technical expertise and a track record of delivery, Weldex is well placed to benefit from this increased investment.”
Dougie McGilvray, Weldex’s CEO, added “We have a strong order book and good visibility on forward orders for the larger cranes, particularly for those being used in the renewable energy and power plant sectors for which demand is expected to increase in the UK. Our headquarters remain in Inverness and the McGilvray family remain fully involved in the day to day running of the business.”