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Walker Morris advises Renew Holdings on latest acquisition

Walker Morris has advised the AIM quoted, leading engineering services group, Renew Holdings plc on the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of J Browne Group Holdings Limited (J Browne) for a cash consideration of £29.5m.

J Browne is a water focused engineering services business based in Enfield, North London, delivering multi-disciplinary infrastructure and non-infrastructure services through a number of longstanding framework agreements, across all disciplines in the water sector. J Browne also provides utility connections and infrastructure services to the developer market in London and the Home Counties.

The Acquisition represents an excellent strategic fit, adding material scale to Renew’s water business and brings new water clients into the Group. The Acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and to deliver high single digit earnings accretion on a full year basis.

Walker Morris fielded a multi-disciplinary team comprising: Debbie Jackson, Simon Cuerden and Marianne McKeown (Corporate), Andrew Rayment and Kendel Shepherd (Employment) and Cameron Baloyi Rigby (Real Estate).

This latest acquisition marks the most recent in Renew Holdings and Walker Morris’ partnership having previously worked together on the £38m acquisition of Carnell Support Services Limited and related placing, the £80m purchase of QTS Group Limited and other strategic acquisitions.

Paul Scott, Chief Executive of Renew, commented:

“This acquisition broadens Renew’s exposure to the UK water market and is consistent with our strategic objectives. This market offers attractive long-term growth opportunities underpinned by committed regulatory spend and is a sector we understand well from our established relationships in other water regions. We have known Jeremy and his team for many years and have tracked how they have successfully grown a business with an excellent reputation for directly delivering reliable engineering services to a number of water companies across the south of England, including Thames Water, the largest in the UK. This is a business that shares the values of Renew and I am delighted to welcome the management and staff of J Browne to the Renew family.”

Debbie Jackson, added:

“We have worked with long-standing client, Renew, for a number of years and this latest transaction continues to demonstrate their proven strategy of growing the engineering services business through selective acquisitions and helps the Group continue to achieve its ambitions.”

Construction workers working on construction site