Infrastructure contractor OCU Group is changing hands after a four-year expansion spree that has seen revenue rocket to £1.2bn.
Infrastructure contractor OCU Group is changing hands after a four-year expansion spree that has seen revenue rocket to £1.2bn.
Private equity firm Triton Partners has agreed to sell the business to TDR Capital in a deal that will hand the fast-growing utilities specialist to a new financial backer.
Terms have not been disclosed.
The sale comes after Triton drove through 18 acquisitions and transformed OCU from a regional utilities contractor into a much broader critical infrastructure business.
Revenue has jumped from £295m in the year to April 2022 to £1.2bn in the latest financial year, while the order book has climbed past £4bn.
OCU traces its roots back to O’Connor Utilities, founded by brothers Tim and Tom O’Connor in 1994.
Triton bought the group from the brothers in 2022 for a rumoured £400m when it was turning over around £300m.
The latest deal now sets the stage for another push on acquisitions and international growth under global private equity giant TDR.
OCU now employs more than 2,500 people and deploys a total workforce of around 5,500 across the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India.
The group has also widened its offer with in-house capabilities spanning high-voltage engineering, horizontal directional drilling, electrical design and specialist civils.
It now delivers work across the full infrastructure lifecycle from design and construction through to commissioning, repair and maintenance.
TDR is backing another leg of growth and wants to turn OCU into a bigger international player in critical infrastructure.
The investor said it sees scope to accelerate expansion through further acquisitions as power and infrastructure networks face rising investment demands around the world.
OCU chief executive Michael Hughes said: “OCU is a very different business today from the one Triton invested in four years ago, and their support has been instrumental in helping us build the platform we have today.
“Our focus now is on continuing to deliver for our clients, invest in our people and capabilities, and capture the significant opportunities ahead.”
TDR managing partner Gary Lindsay said the firm believed OCU could build “a globally relevant position in critical infrastructure”.