Midlands construction company sells majority stake to London investor

(left to right): Iryna Dubylovska, Sameer Rizvi, Keir Edmonds

A Midlands construction company has sold a majority stake to a London-based investor in a transaction which values the business at £22m.

RD Capital Partners (RDCP) has bought an 80 per cent stake in MCS, a Warwick-based construction firm which was founded in 2003.

The deal will see founder and CEO Keir Edmonds and the company’s senior management team remain with the company and retain shareholdings in the business.

MCS, which employs more than 60 staff and turns over in excess of £100 million, has delivered a range of projects across the UK, in sectors including automotive, industrial, commercial, retail and leisure.

The latest set of audited group accounts – to May 31, 2023 – showed pre-tax profit of £6.65m on turnover of £112m, numbers that Edmonds says will be exceeded by the pending accounts to May 31, 2024.

Edmonds said the deal was designed to ensure that MCS maintained its strong financial performance and underpinned the company’s ambitions to deliver outstanding facilities for its clients.

“RDCP is building a group of successful companies with the aim of growing over the long term and expressed interest in us because of our track record and excellent reputation,” he said.

“For that reason, it will be very much business as usual with us continuing to deliver great projects for our clients whilst maintaining our strategic objectives of minimising and managing risk to maximise returns.

“RDCP has a keen interest in construction sector businesses and own three non-contractor entities already so there will also be some synergies going forward.

“We have built a great team at MCS which has delivered for clients for more than two decades, providing certainty and stability in a highly-competitive market.

“Not only have those been the reasons for our success, they are reasons RDCP have invested. Preserving this legacy with a sensible transaction structure was an absolute priority for us, demonstrating to the sector that ownership changes can occur at the same time as maintaining the financial ability and performance of the business.

“This deal gives surety for our staff and clients that we will be moving forward on the same path that has delivered strong results – especially in recent years when the sector has been especially volatile.”

MCS’s recent projects include a 430,000 sq ft industrial scheme of 14 units in Burgess Hill, a new self-storage complex with nine industrial units in Staines, and a new three storey office and production facility for German owned Electrical components manufacturer Wago in Rugby.

It also delivered Sucham Park, which is a 42,200 square foot industrial scheme in Southam, earlier this year, the first for Warwickshire Property & Development Group (WPDG), attracting more than 100 jobs for the region.

RD Capital Partners (RDCP) is a diversified investment group with an enterprise value of £500 million, employing 2,000 staff members across multiple sectors in the UK.

It was founded in 2015 by Sameer Rizvi and Iryna Dubylovska and has made 31 investments, which have consolidated into ten ring-fenced companies in sectors including care, engineering, transport, leisure and building products.

Rizvi said: “We have closely followed the progress of MCS and have been impressed by its performance, quality and consistency in what is a very competitive sector.

“Keir and his team have created a strong business and, as investors, our aim is to allow them to continue to follow that path and keep producing very healthy results, as well as exploiting any synergies within our group companies.”