Three Redhill companies acquired in deal brokered by KBS Corporate

By Peter Davison

13 June 2023

Share

The Business Magazine article image for: Three Redhill companies acquired in deal brokered by KBS Corporate

T4 Mechanical and Electrical Ltd

Three Surrey companies under the same umbrella have been bought by a Swiss group seeking to expand its UK presence in a deal brokered by KBS Corporate.

Redhill-based T4 Mechanical and Electrical Ltd, Lidex Control Systems Ltd, and React 4 Group Ltd have all been sold to Sauter Automation.

T4 was established in 2007 and offers mechanical and electrical services, also incorporating design and maintenance, to the buildings services sector across London and the south of England.

Lidex develops and installs energy management systems and controls, while fire and security expert React 4 delivers smoke ventilation systems, sprinklers and wet and dry risers.

By enlisting the help of KBS Corporate, with Joe Norris, Associate Corporate Director, overseeing the transaction, the T4 shareholders were keen to remain involved with the business and to realise capital, while also benefiting from future growth resulting from the outside investment and synergies with the acquirer.

Sara Fletcher, Senior Document Writer at KBS Corporate, reflected on the marketing process for T4: “The wealth of information provided by the shareholders allowed us to produce detailed documentation that reflected the company’s multi-disciplinary approach and proceed with the marketing process in a prompt manner.”

Sauter Automation, a Basel-based buildings technology group with subsidiaries across Europe, was quick to make an offer via its UK subsidiary.

“Sauter moved quickly, and the offer was the first and only one because it was accepted. The company wasn’t on the market very long before Sauter made an offer for the three companies," said Joe.

“The buyer wished to expand its footprint in the UK as well as bring additional capabilities in-house. The valuation was in line with our client’s expectations – a large trade buyer was their preference and we managed to achieve this.

“T4, Lidex and React 4 will benefit from additional investment and overlapping synergies within the wider Sauter group of companies, while Sauter will drastically increase its presence in the UK.

“Our clients will remain with the business for a period of years following completion to oversee and benefit from the future growth of the business within the Sauter Group.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.