Founded in 2005, Accuro is a well-established facilities management service provider, delivering high-quality hard and soft services to the education and healthcare sectors, across the Midlands, East Anglia and the North of England.
The company was originally set up to provide a range of facility management services to the NHS under long-term contracts. In recent years, it had diversified into the education sector, initially with a focus on cleaning services, and more recently providing a range of maintenance services as well.
Following the merger between OCS Group and Atalian Servest, the group was given a mandate to grow through key strategic acquisitions.
Accuro was considered a natural target for OCS due to its sector focus, excellent reputation as a high-quality service provider and long-term contracts with recurring revenues.
Grant Thornton provided an integrated, one team approach encompassing Corporate Finance and Tax Advisory to achieve the best result for the shareholders.
We led the negotiations, including advising on net debt and normalised working capital adjustments, which unlocked significant additional value for the shareholders. Our sector expertise and tenacity ensured an efficient transaction process and a successful outcome.
Usman Malik, who led the transaction for Grant Thornton commented: “Although political and economic uncertainty is currently impacting the M&A market, acquirers are still actively pursuing quality FM assets, due to their resilient nature. Whilst it is a fragmented marketplace, we are seeing a lot of activity from acquisitive buyers, like OCS/Atalian Servest, on ambitious growth strategies. The sale of Accuro marks another great deal for the Grant Thornton M&A team as we look forward to a strong pipeline activity for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024.”
Having founded Accuro almost 20 years ago, it was hugely important we found a buyer to continue the Accuro ethos for quality service. Grant Thornton’s deep sector knowledge and understanding of the buyer landscape was invaluable in helping achieve this with OCS group. The Grant Thornton team were a delight to work alongside, they were highly professional, supporting us at every stage of the process, providing invaluable advice throughout. They certainly went the extra mile and added significant value, including a locked box and working capital analysis that generated significant additional shareholder value. I cannot praise them highly enough and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone considering a potential transaction.
Nigel Prothero CEO, Accuro Group Holdings Limited
