Clearwater International advises Palatine on its sale of CTS Group to Oakley Capital

Clearwater International has advised Palatine on the sale of CTS Group, the fast-growing provider of testing, inspection and geoengineering consulting services to the construction and infrastructure sectors.

Leicestershire-headquartered CTS has been acquired by Oakley Capital, the pan-European private equity investor.

Since its initial investment in 2018, Palatine has grown CTS into a leading business in the UK. Revenues have more than doubled over the last three years, through Palatine’s investment in digital transformation, talent acquisition and a highly successful buy and build strategy. With Palatine’s backing, CTS has made nine acquisitions adding complementary services and geographic scale to its offering.

CTS has also benefited from Palatine’s industry-leading approach to ESG strategy, which has seen the business create an in-house ESG coordinator position and realise significant reductions in its carbon footprint through fleet electrification and digitisation initiatives.

Earlier this year, Clearwater International’s Debt Advisory advised Palatine and CTS on a multi-million pound refinancing transaction with European credit specialist Kartesia to support the business’ growth plans.