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The Group, which was founded in 1930 by metal merchant John Lawrie in Aberdeen, and still has its headquarters in the city, is one of Scotland’s leading privately-owned businesses with bases in Montrose and Evanton near Invergordon, Scotland, and Houston, New Jersey and Philadelphia, USA.

John Lawrie has three divisions providing metal recycling and reprocessing, decommissioning, and steel tubular services to the oil and gas, construction and utility sectors in the UK and USA.

Vic Sinclair, CEO of John Lawrie said “The commitment of its senior management team has made John Lawrie the industry leader it is today. We enter this exciting new era as a financially strong, ambitious business back by new investors who will help us drive further organic growth in both the UK and the USA across all three of our divisions. We also intend to pursue new markets including through acquisitions in this partnership with Rubicon and Grovepoint.”

Charlie Parker, CFO, commented: “John Lawrie is a business with a proud past and an exciting future. We are delighted to be partnering with new investors who have an established pedigree of working with industrial sector enterprises to drive new opportunities and value creation. We have a clear strategy for growth and that’s good news for all our stakeholders.”

Meter-U works mostly for water companies, reading meters at domestic and non-domestic premises. Other services include meter data management, leakage reporting, client revenue protection and meter replacement activities. It manages the data from four million meters, collecting 17 million meter reads a year throughout the UK and Ireland.

Morrison Data Services managing director Simon Best said: “Meter-U’s service offering to water utility companies mirrors those that we provide to the energy sector. This acquisition will enable Morrison Data Services to further develop our utility data collection field force in the UK and combine our joint capabilities across both energy and water.

“With a strong order book and long-term frameworks secured with a number of major utility companies, this acquisition will present significant, ongoing growth and diversification opportunities for our business.”

Rubicon acquired Meter-U in January 2016 as part of the acquisition of the EnServe Group with a strategy of establishing each of the group companies (Freedom, Metro Rod, Meter-U and Evolve Analytics) as stand-alone businesses. Through removing the EnServe head-office and providing direct strategic input to the autonomous management teams within each of the group companies, these businesses have improved performance and positioning in their respective markets.

The Directors of Franchise Brands believe the acquisition represents a transformational step in respect of Franchise Brands’ strategy to pursue the selective acquisition of franchise businesses that could benefit from the Company’s central services, such as marketing, and also the experience of the Board and management team in developing franchise businesses. Given the scale of the Acquisition when compared to the existing Group, the transaction is a reverse takeover under the AIM Rules.

Stephen Hemsley, Executive Chairman of Franchise Brands plc, commented:

“We are delighted to announce the proposed Acquisition of Metro Rod, which represents a transformational step in respect of implementing the Group’s stated buy and build strategy.

“Metro Rod is a market leading, profitable and cash generative business with an experienced management team, a mature and stable franchise network and high customer retention rates. We believe that Franchise Brands’ significant marketing and franchise management expertise will accelerate the development of Metro Rod’s existing business and its newly launched Metro Plumb business, enabling the business and management team to thrive as part of Franchise Brands.

Rubicon acquired Metro Rod in January 2016 as part of the acquisition of the EnServe Group with a strategy of establishing each of the group companies (Freedom, Metro Rod, Meter-U and Evolve Analytics) as stand-alone businesses. Through removing the EnServe head-office and providing direct strategic input to the autonomous management teams within each of the group companies, these businesses have improved performance and positioning in their respective markets.

BMAC, headquartered near Manchester, England and founded in 1927, is a leader in designing, manufacturing and distributing LED lighting and electronic control systems for the European rail, bus and tram markets. The company’s recent product introductions include the market’s first LED rail lighting solution which is fully compliant with the European EN15153-1 exterior rail lighting standard and a self-powered wireless bell push system for buses.

“We are very pleased to bring BMAC into the Grakon family. BMAC immediately gives us a leadership position in the U.K. rail and bus markets. The acquisition accelerates our continued growth in Europe and further diversifies and broadens the end markets we serve,” said Dave Paborsky, President & CEO of Grakon.

Rubicon acquired BMAC in June 2015 through its acquisition of Volvox Group with a strategy to re-establish the three businesses in the group, BMAC, Ring and Vanline, as standalone companies with their own management, strategy, and investment plans. Shortly after the acquisition, Rubicon acquired Translec, an innovative manufacturer of interior and exterior lighting also for the rail industry, giving BMAC exclusive rights to Translec’s existing products and technologies. By bringing together both companies’ expertise, BMAC was able to significantly enhance its market offering and scale.

EnServe is a leading provider of infrastructure support services to the utilities sector, operating principally in the UK. EnServe was acquired during December 2010 by Cinven and today comprises three divisions: Electricity, Utility Services and Analytics. The Group works in partnership with a large number of commercial, public and utility organisations, operating from more than 30 locations across the UK and employing 1,650 people.

EnServe comprises the following three divisions:

• The Electricity division incorporates Freedom Group, which provides engineering design, installation and maintenance services to the utility sector and wider markets, working primarily with electricity distribution networks and private network owners
• The Utility Services division operating under the Meter-U and Metro Rod brands, provides meter reading services to Energy and Water Utility companies and waste water drainage services to water companies and commercial / domestic clients
• Evolve Analytics is a software provider specialising in the identification and correction of settlement and billing error in the energy sector and providing Business Intelligence solutions to energy retailers. It uses proprietary software, combined with detailed knowledge of the energy settlement process, to unlock financial and operational performance improvements for utilities companies.

In the year ended 30 April 2015 the Group had a turnover of c. £200m.

Grovepoint and Rubicon have joined together in partnership to make several successful investments since 2010. As the new owners of EnServe, they will combine hands-on strategic and operational management expertise with the capital and market insight needed to maximise the potential of each of the Group’s businesses.