Acquisition of BWB by CAF Group wins East Midlands Deal of the Year

The acquisition of Catapult portfolio company BWB Consulting by CAF Group has won the Deal of the Year award at the recent East Midlands Dealmakers Dinner. The Award, which was sponsored by UBS and open to all transactions across the Midlands region, was described by the judges as “One of the best international deals in the East Midlands for some time”.

Catapult first invested in the Nottingham-based engineering group BWB back in 2008. At the time of CAF’s acquisition, BWB had grown to employ more than 300 people across seven offices in England and had an annual turnover of more than £23m.

Speaking at the time of the acquisition, Duncan Cameron, Director of Catapult Ventures, said “We are delighted that BWB has been such a successful story to date. Catapult’s business is to back management teams with the vision and commitment to achieve business growth and create value.  The BWB team, led by Steve Wooler, has shown great ability in accelerating BWB’s development as an exciting and innovative consultancy.  The transaction with CAF represents a further tremendous opportunity for everyone at BWB and we are also excited about this next stage in the company’s progression.”  

The acquisition of BWB by CAF is one of 10 exits Catapult Ventures has announced since 2015, averaging a 4x return on cash invested. Other recent exits include Accutronics (9.1x), Lumora (5x), Oxford Cryosystems (5.3x), Systems Integration (4.9x), Monica Healthcare (3.5x), Hangar7 (3x) and Haemostatix (3x expected).

More details about this and other dealmakers awards winners can be found at https://www.insidermedia.com/event/east-midlands-dealmakers-awards/coverage