WestBridge backs Alpine Fire Engineers in secondary buyout

Private equity firm WestBridge has completed a secondary buyout of Alpine Fire Engineers Ltd, specialist providers of mechanical fire suppression systems. The transaction, which  provides an exit for Soho Square Capital, sees WestBridge invest £18.7m to take a majority stake in the company. 

Private equity firm WestBridge has completed a secondary buyout of Alpine Fire Engineers Ltd, specialist providers of mechanical fire suppression systems. The transaction, which  provides an exit for Soho Square Capital (Soho), sees WestBridge invest £18.7m to take a majority stake in the company. 

It also marks the tenth investment from WestBridge Fund II.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Greater Manchester, Alpine design, project manage and maintain complex fixed fire suppression systems across the UK.  

Soho Square became Alpine’s first institutional investor in 2018, backing an acceleration of the company’s expansion plans which saw sales and EBITDA each increase by over fourfold. 

The buyout was led by Alpine’s management team, Steve Nanda (CEO), Mark Jones (CFO), Louise Plant (service and business development director), Rob Brennan (proposals director) and Mark Thewlis (operations director), who have all been instrumental in driving the company’s growth over the last few years. 

The WestBridge transaction team comprised Peter Barkley, James MacLeay, Rory Whitrow and James Wakefield.  Soho Square’s deal team, meanwhile, was led by David Steel (Director) and Howard Chan (Consultant).  

Soho Square and Alpine were advised by Clearwater International (corporate finance), Addleshaw Goddard (legal), Grant Thornton (financial due diligence) and Strategy & (commercial due diligence).