Pictured: (l-r) Matthew Norrington (Investment Director, LDC); David Hayle, (Chief Executive, PJD) and John Garner (Director, LDC)

LDC, the Midlands leading private equity provider have announced that it has invested into Castle Donnington based PJD Group ("PJD" or "the Company"), one of the UK's leading independent mechanical engineering specialists.

The transaction represents LDC's first deal completion using capital from its recently launched £200 million manufacturing and specialist engineering commitment - an initiative focused on supporting businesses with specialist manufacturing capabilities across a range of niche sectors including power generation, aerospace, defence and oil and gas.

The deal further underpins LDC's commitment to provide growth capital funding to support locally-based, high-growth businesses operating within the UK mid-market. Equally PJD is also well suited to benefit from LDC's active support for a buy and build approach, a strategy that will underpin PJD's future direction.

First established in 1985, PJD provides a wide range of repair, maintenance, manufacturing, upgrade and installation services across the power, environmental and industrial markets and employs over 250 full time staff.

The company is focused on three key areas - PJD Power, which provides services to the coal, gas and nuclear power and plants sectors; PJD Environmental, which provides services to the emerging renewable energy industry and biomass generation; and Grayton Engineering, which operates within the cement, chemical, refineries and steel industries.

LDC is backing PJD's existing management team, which is led by Chief Executive David Hayle. PJD's founder Peter Douglas will remain on the board as a Non-Executive Director. 

The deal was led by LDC Director John Garner and Investment Director Matthew Norrington. John Garner will join the board with immediate effect.

Commenting on the investment, John Garner, LDC Director said:

"In PJD, we are backing a market leading business which is well placed within each of its key sectors to deliver strong organic and acquisitive growth. 

"LDC is fully committed to supporting the growth and expansion of our portfolio companies and by working closely alongside PJD's highly experienced management team we intend to target strategic acquisitions to help accelerate the company's growth prospects in existing and new market sectors."  

David Hayle, Chief Executive of PJD added: 

"The replacement energy market is worth £110 billion over the next 10 years, so it was important for us to find the right strategic investment partner in LDC. We look forward to the financial and strategic support that that their investment will bring to our business.

"This transaction will help to underpin our overall growth and development strategy as we actively seek to acquire businesses that will complement and enhance our existing service proposition."

Martin Draper, LDC's UK New Business Managing Director said:

"This deal is the first to be completed with funding from LDC's £200million investment commitment to manufacturing and specialist engineering businesses, and is an early indication of our initiative to partner with high quality management teams of mid-market companies to help support their growth and expansion in this important industry sector."

HSBC Corporate and Structured Banking (Stephen Stout and Stuart Grantham) continue to provide debt funding to PJD following on from their support for the original Management Buyout led by David Hayle in 2007, a shareholder restructuring in 2009, and the acquisition of Grayton Engineering in 2010.

Advisors to the transaction included Gateley (Austin Moore and Mark Rutherford), BTG McInnes (Dave Irwin), Shoosmiths (Shaun McCabe) and SSD (Jonathan Jones).