Monday 18 January 2021

Would you invest in a bimbo?

Some people would. Look at this! -

Cambridge, 14 January 2020: Foresight Group LLP ("Foresight"), a leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, has made a £5 million investment to support the buy-in management buy-out of Plantexpand Limited ("Plantexpand" or "the Company"), a well-established specialist plant and vehicle maintenance provider servicing the utilities industry. The investment is made by the £100 million Foresight East of England Fund, an evergreen patient pool of capital, cornerstoned by the Cambridgeshire Pension Fund that supports growing SMEs across the East of England.

So, you see? 'Where's the bimbo, boss?' Look closer, Voice. 'I can't see any bimbo.' Christ! Look! -

"Buy-In Management Buy-Out" ... from above.

'Yeah, okay. But I'm sure the PR people don't want you calling it bimbo.' That's what they called it, man, at the top of the email. 'Oh. To catch your attention, no doubt.' Ha! No doubt. No doubt at all.

Anyway ...

Plantexpand was founded in 1987 and has material operations across the East of England. The company provides servicing and routine maintenance for specialist plant such as pumps and lifting equipment, as well as a range of fleet vehicles. Plantexpand's services ensure that there is minimal equipment downtime, allowing key customers such as Thames Water, UK Power Networks and National Grid to provide vital services to local communities, including water, reliable power and transport. Plantexpand's workshop technicians and mobile field engineers currently maintain in excess of 4,500 technical assets for the Company's customers.

Foresight has supported the current team with the management buyout from owners Paul and Kim Bibby, who are retiring after 30 years of ownership. As part of the investment, Foresight has introduced to the company Tod Harrison as Managing Director and Hayden Mursell as Non-Executive Chairman, formerly the CEO of Kier Group Plc. The buyout follows a period of strong growth and resilient trading through 2020 and the enlarged management team is looking to drive the business forward in the next stage of the company's development. Growth plans include further workshop capacity in the East of England to underpin the Company's anticipated expansion, with the anticipated creation of more jobs in the region.

Fair enough.

And we have a couple of voices now ...

Commenting on the investment, David Turner, Investment Director at Foresight, says: "Plantexpand has built a market-leading position in the provision of servicing, maintenance and repair services to the utilities sector. We are excited to be working with the management team in the next phase of growth and capitalizing on the strong organic growth opportunities available."

Nice one, Dave! / Paul?

Paul Tysoe, Investment Manager, Cambridgeshire Pension Fund, adds: "Plantexpand is a great example of the type of local business that the Fund was set up to support. Having demonstrated consistent growth in recent years, we are looking forward to seeing this well-established company continue its growth with Foresight's support."

Nice one, Paul!

ENDS

...

Anything else? Music?

Well, I might have a new golden rule for songwriting, which is: If a dummy lyric is working, don't scrap it just because you feel you need to write a "proper" lyric.

I've nearly finished my new song. I only need to write one verse lyric now. The rest of it just came while I was making a rough recording of the music.

I also rewrote that fifteen second chorus from last week.

By the way, those imaginary record company executives were right to respond in such a manner. The song is pretty great. Better than the one in the dream, actually.

It'll probably be on my second album. 'Ha!' Ha, ha, ha!

Second album ... ???

Ah, never mind.

Laters!