Apologies for the cricket pun, but this was the “perfect six” when Batt Cables (“Batt”/“Company”), one of Europe’s leading distributors of electrical cables, was acquired by private equity investor Chiltern Capital (“Chiltern”).
Batt is a UK headquartered, global specialist in the management and distribution of electrical cables, with facilities in the UK, mainland Europe, USA and Asia. It holds a wide range of over 8,000 different products in stock, serving industries including infrastructure, construction, renewables, offshore, telecommunication and transport.
Batt was founded in 1952 by previous majority shareholder, Peter Holm’s father, Jens Holm, and his business partner, Robert ‘Bobby’ Batt. As part of the transaction, Peter Holm will remain as an adviser to Batt and it will continue to be run by its existing management team who will become shareholders in the Company. As part of the transaction Chiltern will also introduce industry veteran, Jeremy Ling, as Executive Chair to support the management team in driving the Company through its next phase of growth.
Peter Holm said: “From the age of 18, I have spent my entire career building Batt from a small UK focused distributor, into the £200+ million revenue international company it is today. I’m enormously grateful to all the people who have supported me on this journey over the years, from customers, suppliers and not least my fantastic staff and management team. Whilst there will be a touch of sadness, I know now is the right time to hand over the reins and I have no doubt that the business will thrive following Chiltern’s investment, and I will enjoy supporting them on that journey.”
Peter Holm was assisted throughout this transaction by Hawkins Hatton Corporate Lawyers (“HH”) and Colin Rodrigues (Partner at HH) said: “The global footprint of Batt may seem daunting when it comes to a corporate transaction but the quality of the operation and people within Batt made this transaction seamless as they had all of the information we required at their fingertips so negotiating and delivering a deal like this was like “hitting the perfect six”.”
Joe Bennett, Investment Director at Chiltern Capital, added: “We feel privileged to be taking ownership of a company with such a long history in the UK cable distribution market. With the pressing requirement for ESG-driven electrification to support countries’ net-zero targets, now is an exciting time to be investing in the sector. We will seek to protect Peter’s legacy, whilst also investing to take the Company through the next stage of its growth journey.”
