Warburg ups activity

Warburg Pincus has acquired Caradon Plumbing, a pan-European heating group, in a deal that valued the business at £227m. The purchase was made as a secondary buyout from a consortium of private equity investors led by Montagu Private Equity. Caradon chief executive Trevor Harvey said that senior management remained committed to the business and would continue in their current roles.

“Caradon has a strong market position, with leading brands in the UK boiler market and radiator markets across Europe,” said Steve Coates, a Warburg Pincus managing director who leads the firm’s European buyout activities. “The deal continues our growth in the European buyout market, where we are actively looking at a number of opportunities.”

RBS and BNP Paribas have underwritten debt financing for the acquisition. Warburg Pincus was advised by Merrill Lynch and Clifford Chance.

The deal follows the €630m buyout last year of Clondalkin, an Irish packaging company that was acquired by Warburg in a secondary buyout from Candover. Warburg Pincus has recently increased its focus on LBO activity in Europe with the hire of Peter Wilson, one of the founder partners of the Electra European Fund.

Since the firm’s first European transaction in 1983, Warburg Pincus has invested US$3.1bn in 70 companies in 17 European countries.