Elysian Capital III LP Acquisition with management of Cross Rental Services

Elysian Capital III LP is pleased to announce, in conjunction with management, its acquisition and investment in Cross Rental Services (“Cara (Topco) Limited”) from Lonsdale Capital Partners (“Lonsdale”). This represents Elysian’s second investment in the Irish market since backing the management team of Mergon Group, based in Co Westmeath in 2019, and is the third investment in the past month from the Elysian Capital III LP Fund, which closed in September 2020 at £325million.

The transaction also marks the return of Laura McCoy to Elysian Capital, and the establishment of Elysian’s Irish office which is focused on partnering with entrepreneurial management teams across Ireland to provide support and investment on the next phase of their growth journey. Laura worked at Elysian from 2011 to 2017 and has now re-joined to establish and run the Elysian operation in Dublin.

Cross Rental Services is headquartered in Dublin and provides specialist, mission critical cooling and heating equipment and services on a rental basis to a variety of end markets across both Ireland and the UK. The business comprises two divisions: Refrigeration & Catering Solutions (‘R&CS’) and Climate Control Solutions (‘CCS’). The R&CS division provides a fully managed turn-key service for a range of commercial refrigeration and catering assets, with a market leading position for long-term retail refrigeration rental in the UK and Ireland. The CCS division provides a large base of blue-chip customers with heating and cooling solutions, focusing primarily on chillers, boilers, heaters, and air-conditioning, with a specialisation in technically complex products which are used for high-criticality applications.

Led by CEO Graeme Nesbitt, the business has grown strongly in recent years, including throughout the pandemic, and has established a significant UK platform for growth in both divisions. Cross Rental Services is now embarking on a new expansion phase, supported by Elysian, with ambitious plans to accelerate its market penetration across all divisions, and in particular to unlock a number of exciting opportunities and build further scale within the UK market; both organically and through selective M&A opportunities.

Graeme Nesbitt, CEO of Cross Rental Services, said:

“Cross Rental Services has been through an exciting phase of growth over the last three years, particularly in the UK market, and I would like to pay tribute to Lonsdale for their support and strategic input that made that success possible. The management team are delighted to have entered into partnership with Elysian, who are an experienced investor in this sector and have demonstrated a strong commitment to our business throughout the time we have known them. We are very excited to work with them, and their investment into the business will enable us to deliver on our ambitious growth plans via accelerated capital expenditure and targeted M&A within our core markets.”

Ken Terry, Elysian CEO said:

“We are very excited to be partnering with Graeme and the Cross Rental Services team as they continue their impressive growth trajectory both in Ireland and the UK. We first met the Cross team several years ago and have followed their successful progress from afar. The chance now to work with and support them is a great opportunity in a market which is seeing considerable growth and opportunity. In addition, I am very pleased that this transaction sees the successful return to Elysian of Laura McCoy and the formal establishment of the new Elysian office in Dublin. Laura was a very important and valued team member when she worked with us previously and we are very excited to have her back, helping us continue to be successful in the interesting Irish market”.

Elysian Capital was advised by: Addleshaw Goddard (Legal); Deloitte (Corporate Finance and Debt Advisory), PWC (Tax) and Aon (Insurance). Cross Rental Services’s shareholders were advised by: Houlihan Lokey (Corporate Finance); Burness Paull (Legal), Deloitte (Financial) and LEK (Commercial). Management advice was provided by Liberty Corporate Finance, Arthur Cox (Legal) and Deloitte (Tax).

For further information, please contact:

Ken Terry, CEO Elysian Capital LLP                  ken@elysiancapital.com