News
LDC exits leading sustainability and compliance specialist Stroma
28 Feb 2022
The Manchester team of leading mid-market private equity firm LDC has exited its investment in Stroma Group (Stroma), a market leader in sustainability and compliance services across the built environment in the UK, to Phenna Group.
Headquartered in Wakefield, Stroma is the UK’s leading provider of technology-driven safety, sustainability and compliance services to clients across all stages of the building lifecycle, from pre-construction through to occupancy. Its services include testing, consultancy and building control, along with inspection and maintenance work. Stroma is able to offer a one-stop shop for developers, contractors and individual property owners across the UK. As part of its testing and consultancy work, it helps customers from multi-national corporations to SMEs on their journey to becoming net zero through increasing energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions and wastage.
Since LDC invested in Stroma in 2014, the business has expanded its range of sustainability services in design and consultancy to become a leading provider to the built environment industry. The business is currently in the advanced stages of the B-Corporation certification process.
LDC also supported Stroma to acquire three building control businesses which further strengthened its inspection and compliance offering. Over the period of LDC’s partnership, the business has delivered award-winning training programmes to around 2,500 professionals, guiding the next generation of building control specialists in the industry. Today, Stroma employs 350 people across its 14 regional offices which include sites in Cannock, London, Maidstone and Truro.
Through its extensive network, Phenna Group, a company focused on providing testing, inspection, certification and compliance services, will now support Stroma to further expand its customer base and enhance its portfolio of market-leading services.
Martin Holt, CEO of Stroma, said: “Stroma’s core purpose of providing safety, sustainability and compliance service within the built environment has been developed with the full support of the LDC team.”
With LDC’s partnership, the business has transformed and is now on track for B-Corp certified status as a purpose driven business."
Aziz Ul-Haq, Partner at LDC in Manchester, added: “We’re proud to have supported Stroma to cement its market leading position and in making significant progress towards helping the built environment industry to become net zero by 2050.
“Stroma is just one example of us working closely with management teams we support across our portfolio to help develop sustainable solutions which reduce the carbon footprint of their own operations or of their customers’. We wish the team well on the next stage of their growth journey.”
LDC is committed to ensuring its investment activity makes a meaningful contribution to solving the UK’s environmental and social challenges. The firm has pledged to ensure its own operations are net zero by 2030 and to support portfolio companies to reduce emissions by 50% in the same timeframe.
Financial details concerning the transaction are undisclosed.
LDC and Stroma were advised by Clearwater International (corporate finance), Addleshaw Goddard (legal), KPMG (financial) and PMSI Consulting (commercial).