£4bn takeover of HomeServe set for early 2023 as profit rises for repairs firm
A £4.1bn takeover of repairs firm HomeServe by a Canadian suitor is on track to be completed by early 2023 at the latest.
The pipe-fixing company has been snapped up by Bidco, a subsidiary of Canadian company Brookfield Infrastructure funds.
HomeServe said all necessary regulatory and competition approvals have now been obtained in the UK and continental Europe.
It is now just waiting for the green light from two state insurance regulators in the U.S., meaning the deal will complete either before the end of 2022 or early 2023 “at the latest.”
As part of the agreement, each shareholder is entitled to 1,200 pence per share, with founder Richard Harpin’s 7.38 per cent stake his wife Kate’s 4.76 per cent share, equaling £495m.
In half-year results to the end of September, London-listed HomeServe posted buoyed sales of £714.4m, boosted 17 per cent compared to revenue for the same period in 2021.
Adjusted profit before tax rose 29 per cent, hitting £107.4m in the period, with its UK cost base benefiting from a higher proportion of jobs being completed by directly employed engineers.
An interim dividend would not be paid, given the shareholder-approved cash offer for the group, the firm said.
“With Brookfield we share a common vision of investment and growth in residential infrastructure, and of the importance of decarbonisation to the societies in which we live,” HomeServe boss and founder Richard Harpin, said.
Demand for repair firms had held up despite the rocky macroeconomic environment “because of the value our people deliver every day to our customers,” Harpin added.