Clearwater advises Aquavista on its acquisition of Castle Marinas

Transaction

Aquavista backed by LDC acquired Castle Marinas

Buy-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to Aquavista backed by LDC on its acquisition of Castle Marinas

Sector

Consumer

Region

United Kingdom

Clearwater has advised LDC-backed Aquavista, the UK’s premier residential and leisure mooring provider, on its strategic acquisition of Castle Marinas.

Headquartered in Nottinghamshire, Aquavista has 18 UK wide locations, with more than 100 crew members and provides residential and leisure berths, boat sales, floating homes and marine services. The transaction will expand its existing portfolio with an additional footprint of 11 high quality marinas, including Crick Marina home of the world-famous Crick Boat Show and the picturesque Birdham Pool Marina at Chichester Harbour.

Following the acquisition, Aquavista’s new offering will provide 29 marinas and over 5,000 marina berths UK-wide, at both inland and coastal locations.

The investment was funded by leading mid-market private equity firm LDC. Debt facilities were provided by Barings. LDC partnered with Aquavista in December 2018 to support targeted capital investment across the marina estate. Since then, the business has invested more than €3.5m (£3m) to improve its marina facilities and deliver first-class waterside experiences for its customers.

The Clearwater team worked very closely with us to deliver this transaction. They were integral to helping us get this deal done, and we are very grateful for their support in navigating an asset backed debt financing and in providing a driven M&A team focused on the acquisition of Castle. It has been an intense process and we couldn’t have done it without them.
Steve de Polo, CEO, Aquavista

Castle Marinas is very pleased to have reached an agreement with Aquavista. It is clear how closely our mission statements align, and we believe Aquavista is ideally placed to continue to deliver and, indeed, improve on our commitment to be ‘Big enough to cope, small enough to care’. This transaction will support our waterside teams to continue providing a friendly, helpful and professional service at all our locations.
Mike Braidley, Operations Director, Castle Marinas

Aquavista is one of the most respected operators in its sector thanks to its customer-focus. We are enjoying working alongside Steve and his team to grow the business by investing in its estate, and this acquisition represents a significant milestone in establishing the firm as the market leader.
David Bains, Investment Director, LDC

It has been a pleasure to work with both LDC and the management team of Aquavista to deliver this transformational transaction. We have been very impressed by both LDC’s commitment to the marinas sector and the quality of the Aquavista management team. We have no doubt that, together, they will create significant shareholder value through their management of a much larger business. We look forward to following their journey.
Richard Ellis, Director, Clearwater

Advisers

Christopher Jones

Managing Director +44 845 872 3797 christopher.jones@clearwatercf.com Connect

Joe Dyke

Managing Director +44 845 034 4772 joe.dyke@clearwatercf.com Connect

Kieran Virr

Director +44 797 077 7400 kieran.virr@clearwatercf.com Connect

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