Hermes engineers Beck buy

Hermes Private Equity, the investment arm of Hermes Pension Management, has acquired Beck & Pollitzer, a UK specialist in installing and relocating industrial plants and machinery, for £55m.

The deal represents an exit for Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance, which acquired the company in January 2005 from mid-market buyout house Gresham for £28.8m.

Beck & Pollitzer works across a wide range of sectors including automotive, printing, canning, pharmaceutical and aerospace, and has been a particular beneficiary of the growing trend for relocation among Western European manufacturers to Central and Eastern Europe.

The company has 15 offices in the UK, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia and has a skilled workforce of nearly 300 full-time employees.