Waco International sold to Ethos Consortium in South Africa

Waco International Limited ("Waco") have announced the sale of Waco to a consortium led by Ethos Private Equity (operating in South Africa), including Standard Bank and FirstRand Group, for an undisclosed sum.

Waco International is the ultimate holding company of Waco UK Ltd (trading as Premier-Interlink). Premier-Interlink is a leading specialist manufacturer of steel and timber framed buildings using off-site construction methods.  The company operates from a manufacturing base in East Yorkshire and also has a large hire fleet.  Premier Interlink has been doing business in the UK for the last 60 years and is a notable provider of buildings into the Education, Healthcare, Custodial, Accommodation, Construction, Retail and Hotel market sectors.

Waco is a leading industrial services business in South Africa, Australasia and the UK, providing forming, shoring and scaffolding services, as well as relocatable and permanent modular buildings, and sanitation solutions. Waco has been private equity-owned since 2000. This latest transaction follows the successful sale in 2011 of the group's Australasian relocatable modular building business, Ausco Modular.

The Waco group comprises: Waco Africa (with four divisions: Form-Scaff, SGB-Cape, Sanitech, and Abacus Space Solutions); Waco UK; Waco Kwikform (Australia), and Form-Scaff Chile. Other key shareholders in the consortium are management, RMB Ventures (a mid-market South African private equity firm within the FirstRand Group in South Africa), and Standard Bank (the largest African bank by assets and earnings operating in 18 countries).

Stephen Goodburn (Waco International CEO) stated that,

‘’Our private equity partners have positioned Waco's balance sheet to ensure that we are able to fund continued growth. Over and above organic growth, Waco now has the ability to finance key targeted acquisitions. Besides this, as always, our focus will be on providing excellent service to all of our customers, ensuring that the work gets completed to the best possible standard and with the highest regards to safety standards."