Funding story

We are delighted to have support private equity firm WestBridge in their investment and buy and build strategy in Land Survey Solutions Limited (t/a Survey Solutions), a leading provider of engineering surveying and monitoring services to a range of sectors across the UK. The transaction provides an exit for RJD Partners, and the founder James Cooper, and sees WestBridge invest £14.2m to take a majority stake in the business.  The deal marks the second platform investment from WestBridge III. ThinCats, supported the buyout with debt funding.

First formed in 1997, Survey Solutions has experienced impressive growth to become a national company with 14 regional offices and 160 full time employees, most of whom are specialist surveyors.  The business has also expanded its service offering to clients, adding capabilities such as drone surveying and hydrographics.

Survey Solutions provides land, building, underground and site surveys, along with a range of support services covering the lifecycle of a development.  Working predominantly with housebuilders, contractors, architects, engineering consultants, agents and asset owners, the business works on projects in a diverse range of sectors, including infrastructure, agriculture, defence, transport, energy, retail, leisure, healthcare, education, heritage, and commercial and residential construction. It has a broad range of clients including Thames Water, Transport for London, Aecom, Jacobs, Balfour Beatty and Kier.

The buyout was led by David Lowe, who joined the company as CEO in 2022, along with the senior management team who have all been instrumental in driving growth over the last few years, both organically and through acquisition.

Michelle Heptinstall and Neil Patel led the deal team at ThinCats supported by the Sponsor funding team.

 “We are delighted to have worked alongside WestBridge on another fantastic transaction, which closely follows the completion of a maiden deal in September 23.Survey Solutions is a leading niche player in a fragmented market, with an impressive leadership team who are well placed to lead the buy and build strategy alongside WestBridge and our funding package provides the company with firepower to support this. Our experience in funding high growth, sponsor-backed deals and taking a commercial approach to terms alongside a flexible funding solution, was critical to us delivering a compelling debt package within short timescales.”

The WestBridge transaction team comprised Rebecca Sinclair and Peter Barkley, who both join the Survey Solutions board as directors, and Luke Gilbert, who becomes a board observer and will coordinate value creation initiatives.