Waterland Ireland to invest €150m in Irish businesses

RTÉ News​

5 days ago

Private equity firm Waterland Ireland plans to invest up to €150m in Irish firms over the next 12 to 18 months.
Since launching its Irish arm in 2019, the firm has invested in 30 businesses here.
That includes Co Westmeath-based Writech, Co Louth wholesaler Bellew Electrical and care home group Silver Stream.
It says the Irish firms it has invested in now have combined revenues of €600m - up 71% over the past 18 months.
Meanwhile they employ 3,500 people - up 75% over the past year and a half.
"We plan to invest this in new Irish companies; family-run businesses, where they're looking to ambitiously scale across Europe, and we'll support them in that," said Laura Dillon, partner at Waterland Ireland.
Waterland takes what it calls a 'buy and build' strategy, where it seeks out further investments and acquisitions can compliment the companies it has partnered with.
Ms Dillon said this is the strategy it would continue to deploy in the coming months.
"We look for great Irish businesses that have the ambition to grow further - and normally grow throughout Europe, and potentially even further beyond," she said. "What we call a platform business, making more than €5m of profit in a growing market where it's in a fragmented market, and there's consolidation to be done - and we'll really support that through a buy and build."
She said there is a significant amount of positivity within the Irish market at the moment, and huge potential for growth.
That is evidenced by the rise in revenues some of its companies have enjoyed.
"Irish companies continue to grow," Ms Dillon said. "MTM Engineering - a great example of Irish engineering companies - has grown from €37m in revenue two and a half years ago to, this year, we'll probably do €200m of revenue.
"Equally Writech, when we partnered with them three and a half years ago, they were doing €20m of revenue - this year they'll do about €140m of revenue.
"There really is a lot of growth out there and it's about finding those companies that have that ambition to grow throughout Europe."
The uncertainty created by the threat of a tariff war, as well as the impact that may have on growth, has clouded the investment scene in Europe recently.
Ms Dillon said this is representing a challenge for Waterland - but it may also help to create new opportunities.
"There's definitely uncertainty out there and businesses like pharma or food and beverage exporting to the US, it's a pretty uncertain time at the moment," she said. "But times of uncertainty create opportunity and we see that a lot of Irish entrepreneurs can find those opportunities.
"There are now companies looking to expand... we're supporting some of our companies to expand into Benelux, Germany and France where there are good opportunities."