Personal fairness agency Keyhaven Capital Companions has agreed to promote its fairness stake in unbiased collision restore group Steer Automotive to pan-European personal fairness investor Oakley Capital.

The bodyshop group’s founder Richard Steer and the present administration group will proceed to guide the enterprise and are reinvesting alongside Oakley. As a part of the transaction, Oakley will purchase the shares held by Keyhaven Capital Companions and Chiltern Capital.

Since Capital’s and Keyhaven’s investments in 2021, Steer accomplished 18 acquisitions to create a community of over 100 restore centres throughout the nation. The group has expanded from its core passenger automotive restore market into luxurious automotive restore, industrial car restore and technical providers.

Steer has additionally elevated its variety of producer accreditations to 43 together with manufacturers similar to Porsche, Rolls Royce, Bentley, McLaren, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, JLR, Tesla, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen Group, Stellantis and Ford.

Steer has invested considerably in its operational infrastructure and administration group which has improved its operational effectivity, whereas additionally introducing knowledge and analytics instruments to boost KPI monitoring.

In 2023, Steer was ranked inside the high 40 in The Sunday Occasions’ record of 100 fastest-growing UK companies and recognised by The Unbiased as one of many high 100 job creators within the nation.

Steer now represents roughly 5% of the UK collision restore market, using over 2,300 folks and repairing greater than 115,000 autos a yr. The corporate additionally launched the Steer Academy to diversify recruitment channels, practice and upskill the subsequent technology of technicians.

Richard Steer, founder and chief govt of Steer Automotive, stated: “Over latest years we have now constructed Steer into the UK’s main automotive restore enterprise, with main investments within the expertise, expertise, and methods required to serve the automotive trade because it undergoes enormous change. Each Chiltern and Keyhaven have been nice supporters of our enterprise and have been instrumental in delivering the expansion we have now achieved up to now.

“We’re delighted to have now secured a partnership with Oakley Capital to gas the subsequent section of our progress. Oakley are a fantastic match for our enterprise and complement our expertise, with a really robust observe report serving to quick rising companies by way of each natural progress and M&A. We see potential to additional develop our share of the automotive restore market by constructing a novel sector-leading proposition that’s effectively positioned to satisfy the evolving wants of our purchasers, sustaining our robust deal with buyer care and repair high quality.”

The settlement was signed in December with closing anticipated to happen within the second quarter of 2024.

Peter Dubens, founder and managing accomplice, Oakley Capital, stated: “Our technique has at all times been to take a position behind distinctive founders with a transparent strategic imaginative and prescient. We’ve been impressed by Richard and his group, and the best way they’ve constructed Steer to serve the altering wants of the UK automotive trade. We sit up for working with the corporate as they ship on their formidable progress plans to scale Steer Group right into a key service supplier for this huge, dynamic market.”