Clearwater advises the shareholders of JSM Group on its sale to TowerBrook Capital Partners

Transaction

Majority sale of Rutland Partners-backed JSM Group to TowerBrook Capital Partners

Sell-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to the shareholders of JSM Group on its sale to TowerBrook Capital Partners

Sector

Industrial & Chemicals

Region

United Kingdom

We have advised the shareholders of Rutland Partners (Rutland) backed JSM Group (JSM) on its majority sale to TowerBrook Capital Partners (TowerBrook), delivering a return of over 6.6x (73% IRR) for Rutland.

JSM is a market-leading provider of technical infrastructure services to the UK and Ireland’s power and communication markets, with significant future growth opportunities throughout Europe. The business’s power division provides high-voltage and extra-high-voltage grid connections to its blue-chip customer base across the data centre, battery storage, and renewables markets. The communications division provides core fibre infrastructure network, data centre, and mobile network services to several longstanding communication customers. JSM is recognised for its differentiated knowledge and expertise in its core markets, strong operational capability, and significant commitment to quality customer service as well as health and safety.

Since Rutland Partners’ investment in 2021, alongside JSM’s management team, JSM has delivered significant growth, driven particularly by its power division, which has achieved organic sales growth of c.55% p.a. since its acquisition. The business has successfully developed its market-leading position and benefited from trends surrounding the growing demand for data and connectivity requirements, electrification, and decarbonisation. JSM has developed a large and growing order book, with a pipeline of over €1.4bn (£1.2bn), providing strong forward visibility. The business has also successfully expanded internationally with operations established in both Ireland and Germany, which will further accelerate its growth.

JSM will continue to be led by CEO Stuart Wiltshire, with most of the senior team remaining in the business, as it expands its customer base and further develops into international markets.

TowerBrook is a purpose-driven, transatlantic investment firm with experience investing in businesses across the consumer, financial services, healthcare and technology, media, and service sectors. The firm has a strong history of investing in industrial companies that span a range of sectors, including aerospace, automotive, chemicals, construction, metal recycling, and transformative technologies.

We are delighted to be partnering with TowerBrook for the next phase of our exciting growth journey. We selected Paul, Zack, and the rest of the Clearwater team as our advisers because they know our markets intimately and demonstrated a fantastic knowledge of the European private equity landscape as well as the need to achieve our objectives. It was a pleasure working with the team and taking their honest and thoughtful advice on board. We look forward to Clearwater continuing to support us over the coming years.
Stuart Wiltshire, CEO, JSM

I would like to thank Paul, Zack, and Dom as well as Chris, David, and the rest of the Clearwater Debt team for their fantastic job in delivering such a strong exit for Rutland and the JSM team. It has been a great experience working with Clearwater and with a deep understanding of the business, the market it operates in and the buyer landscape, together with their hard work and enthusiasm, this was fundamental to delivering the outcome.
David Wardrop, Partner, Rutland Partners

It has been a pleasure acting as the lead sell-side adviser to the shareholders of JSM on another landmark UK infrastructure services transaction. It continues our fantastic momentum within the space and is further evidence of a buoyant market for highly specialist players, such as JSM. Stuart, John, and the rest of the team have built an exceptional business and are suitably placed to take further advantage of strong market tailwinds driven by the ongoing energy transition and rapidly growing demand for data in the UK and throughout Europe. We look forward to continuing to support the JSM team and TowerBrook through this exciting next phase.
Zack Goddard, Director, Clearwater

When we first met Stuart and the rest of the JSM team, it was clear to us that they had not only created a fantastic UK market-leading business but also had the ambition and drive to develop the platform into a serious international player. They had chosen their markets wisely, focusing on data and energy megatrends, and as a consequence had created a long runway to grow into. TowerBrook shares this ambition and, I am sure together, the business will continue to go from strength to strength.
Paul Jones, Partner, Clearwater