SCOTTISH waste management specialist NWH Group has opened the door to a possible stock market flotation as it mulls options to fulfil its ambitious expansion plans.
The family-owned firm increased turnover by 23 per cent to £25.4 million last year, making profits of nearly £2m, and is on track to book revenue of £31m in 2017. The progress has come as the company has delivered strong organic growth, boosted by diversification into different service lines, and made a series of acquisitions, turning it into a UK-wide from a Scotland-only player.
Now the Williams family are positioning the firm to ensure it takes advantage of its potential.
Earlier this year Dalkeith- based NWH joined the ELITE programme run by London Stock Exchange (LSE), which provides fast-growing companies with strategic advice on how to maximise their growth prospects, including how to access capital in the London markets.
NWH managing director Mark Williams, who has run the business with brothers Craig and Richard since buying out their father, uncle and cousins in 2005, said a stock market listing is one option open to the company.
So far, NWH has used debt to fund acquisitions, having recently signed a £10 million revolving credit facility with Royal Bank of Scotland to facilitate deals. It has used one-tenth of the facility to date. But Mr Williams believes it will ultimately require additional firepower should any potentially “transformational” takeover deals arise, adding targets on both sides of the Border would be considered.
“What we have looked at is to get the business to a size where it makes sense to look at the next step,” Mr Williams said. “We can’t keep doing the acquisitions via debt, the balance will be incorrect. We’d like to do a transformational acquisition at some point, and for that we are going to need private equity money or [an] IPO (initial public offering) to bring in capital to fund such deals.”
Mr Williams said his experience dealing with the LSE has shown him considerably more companies in England consider floating on the stock market or raising private equity finance than their counterparts in Scotland. He suggests this might reflect a “more reserved” attitude in Scotland, but said from his own perspective he is keen to examine as many options as possible.
“I don’t know if [a float] is right for us or our businesses at this time, but it is certainly an option on the table,” Mr Williams said. “I’d be foolish not to explore it.”
Mr Williams, whose most recent acquisition was the takeover of DJ Laing’s waste management services arm in Dundee, added: “There may be a business that comes along that is maybe £20m or £30m to buy, but we wouldn’t have the debt capacity in the business, or the cash in the business with the debt capacity, to do such a thing. But it would be the right thing to do because it would be transformational. At that point we would need some other form of funding.”
Mr Williams said the company has benefited in recent years from the vibrancy of the house-building market, with NWH providing waste removal services to construct- ion sites. It has also diverted successfully into trade waste, providing a “four-bin” food, glass, dry mixed and general waste service to pubs, restaurants and clubs.
From a “standing start” in 2014, the division is on track to turn over nearly £6m in the current financial year.
The company, whose clients include major builders and civil engineers, is also seeing growth in its land services division.
It was recently awarded an £8m contract to work on the redevelopment of the St James Centre in Edinburgh into a luxury hotel, shops, homes, cinema and restaurants, which will see it involved in excavation work.
The project involves NWH personnel digging 18 to 20 metres below ground level, preparing the way for an underground car park.
The growth seen by NWH has seen the Scottish firm, which operates sites in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Middleton, Dalkeith, Mayfield, Dundee, Fife and Petterden, steadily increase its headcount. Having employed 215 staff in 2015, the figure rose to 240 in 2016. Now it has 310 workers on its roster.
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