Murray Capital backing £30m buy-out

Published on Saturday 2 February 2008 14:51

SIR David Murray's investment division has teamed up with the management of a Fife cabling company in a £30m buy-out.

Murray Capital and the managers at Glenrothes-based Brand-Rex have acquired the company from US private equity firm The Gores Group.

It has recently undergone a 10m investment programme in new plant and equipment.

The company, which employs 390 at its manufacturing sites in Fife and Lancashire and in its global network of sales offices, aims for 100m sales by 2010.

Royal Bank of Scotland provided 12.5m of acquisition funding and a 5m working capital facility.

Brand-Rex has had a presence in Scotland for more than 35 years and supplies high performance cabling systems to support IT networks, with the majority of its sales coming from the export market.

Paul Lines, chief executive, described trading as buoyant. "The partnership with Murray Capital will allow us to continue our strategy to be one of the top three structured cabling companies in the world," he said.

The company has evolved into a global operation designing, developing and manufacturing high performance cabling solutions for communications and extreme environment applications. Its customers range from local government to financial institutions and transport infrastructure organisations.

The venture is one of the biggest to date for Edinburgh-based Murray Capital, formerly Charlotte Capital, and the first under the company's new brand.

David Murray junior, managing director of the business, said: "Backing excellent management teams in traditional economy sectors such as manufacturing and business services both in Scotland and the rest of the UK is our primary focus."