£20m Gateley deal to buy surveying practice
LEGAL and business services firm Gateley has expanded its portfolio of companies by making another acquisition.
The Birmingham-based practice has acquired Smithers Purslow in a deal worth up to £20 million.
Smithers Purslow, which is headquartered in Rutland, Leicestershire, was founded in 1978 and is a rapidly growing multi-disciplinary chartered surveying practice, comprising building and quantity surveyors and civil and structural engineers.
It specialises in services to the property insurance claims market
and resolves high-value claims for insurers, policy holders and their advisers. It posted revenue of £11.7 million and a pre-tax profit of £2.5 million in the year to October 2021.
Smithers Purslow operates from ten offices across the UK and employs 130 staff. Its client base includes insurance companies, utility companies and property managers and high net worth individuals.
Listed Gateley said it expected the buyout to be earnings enhancing in the first year post acquisition.
The existing senior management team of managing director Stephen Fraser and senior director Andrew Bussey will remain in place and the business will be renamed Gateley Smithers Purslow.
This latest deal, the largest to date for Gateley, follows its other recent acquisitions including intellectual property practice Adamson Jones for £2.5 million in January.
Gateley said Smithers Purslow gave it “significantly deeper reach” into the UK’s growing high-value property insurance claims market.
“The acquisition is a significant step forward in delivery of the group’s ‘Platform Strategy’, to acquire and grow complementary professional services businesses and is a further demonstration of Gateley’s commitment to invest in growth,” the Edmund Street firm said in a statement to the stock exchange.
Property is one of Gateley’s four ‘platforms’, the others being business services, corporate and people.
These platforms are market-facing structures on which the group clusters complementary legal and consultancy services, directed at Gateley’s chosen markets.
Smithers Purslow complements the existing expertise at Gateley Vinden, acquired by the group in 2020 and supplemented by the addition of Tozer Gallagher in 2021, further enhancing the group’s growing property platform.
Gateley’s chief executive Rod Waldie said: “We are delighted to welcome the Smithers Purslow team to the group.
“This is another dynamic business that further expands the breadth of capability in our already strong property platform.
“Smithers Purslow’s growth over the last decade has been impressive and it is a highly regarded market leader in the property insurance claims sector in which we see significant opportunity to develop broader and deeper relationships with insurers and insurance intermediaries.
“The existing synergies between Smithers Purslow and Gateley Vinden, across a number of their multidisciplinary service lines, extend the depth of our expertise and provide additional capacity to maximise on the opportunities presented in this sizeable and growing market and the wider built-environment consultancy space. This is our largest acquisition to date and is a clear demonstration of our commitment to invest and grow our market-facing platforms as well as to continue to strengthen our resilience through diversification.”