Hill & Smith has completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary Ash & Lacy Building Systems (ALBS)

Ash & Lacy are leading manufacturers and distributors of metal building envelope systems and ancillary products, providing the specifier and contractor with total solutions from a single source.

A Newco, headed by the management team of Jonathan Evans and Ian French has made the acquisition,  assisted by Leumi ABL, who provided a total asset based lending package of £6.85m.  The package comprises of £5.75 invoice discounting facility, £0.75m stock finance plus £0.35m plant finance.  The team was led by Jason Holland. 

Jonathan Evans is a chartered engineer and will act as the firm’s Chief Executive while Ian French who is a former Director of Hill & Smith will be Commercial Director.  Ray Harriman, who continues as Managing Director commented “This change in ownership presents a tremendous opportunity for us.  It will enable to build on our hard-earned reputation and move forward with even more determination to increase our presence in a variety of new and exciting markets.”

The consideration of £5.1m, which will include repayment of net debt of £2.8m which is payable in cash upon completion and subject to adjustment, based on the capital employed of ALBS, following finalisation of completion accounts. 

Hill & Smith Chief Executive Derek Muir commented “The Disposal completes our strategic repositioning of Hill & Smith away from building and construction activities and enables the Group to focus upon the core higher added value businesses involved in infrastructure products and galvanizing services.”

Leumi ABL is a specialist asset based lending subsidiary of Bank Leumi (UK) plc, part of the Bank Leumi Group they offer growing businesses a range of flexible finance solutions.