Introduction
A UK industrial holding company being established to buy owner-managed businesses at succession and keep them. Six things worth knowing before anything else.
- What we buy — Majority ownership, typically 75–85%, of UK owner-managed businesses with £1–3m of operating profit, at succession. Management retains a stake. No exit clock, no forced sale, no centralisation.
- What it looks like — Number one or two in a narrow niche; a product or service that is critical to the customer but a small share of their cost; customers who come back; operating margins of 15% or more that have held through a cycle; low capital intensity; a management team that runs the business without the founder.
- Structure — A UK holding company that owns its subsidiaries permanently. Each company is financed on its own footing and stands on its own balance sheet.
- Discipline — Entry price is the governor of returns. Charter would rather not buy than overpay, and expects to say no far more often than yes.
- Operating model — Each company keeps its name, management, premises and way of working. The centre allocates capital and sets reporting standards; it does not operate, impose synergies or rebrand.
- People — A founder with nearly twenty years underwriting European mid-market businesses as a creditor; an independent chair and board in formation.
You built something that works. We would like to keep it working, with your name still on the door.
Charter is being built to buy owner-managed British businesses when the owner is thinking about what comes next — stepping back over time, or staying on with a long-term partner behind the business — and then to keep them. Not for three years, not for five. There is no fund with a closing date behind us, so there is no clock on you, your people or your customers.
Most of the buyers you will meet at this size want to change your company. Private equity has a plan for it and a date to sell it on. A trade buyer will fold it into something larger; the name usually goes within a year. We intend to do neither. Your managing director keeps running the business, the accounts stay where they are, the vans stay the same colour. Charter is a holding company. It will stay one.
The way we buy is simple to describe. We take a majority of the company — typically three-quarters or a little more — and the balance stays with you or with the person you are handing over to, so that the people running the business continue to own part of it. The terms of that arrangement are agreed before completion, not argued about afterwards.
We will not always be the highest number. If someone offers you more, ask them how much of it is cash on completion, what their plan is, and who will own the company in five years. If their answer is still better for you, take it. We would rather you decide with clear eyes than regret it later.
If any of this sounds like the conversation you have been meaning to have, a first call takes half an hour and commits you to nothing.
The founder
Charter Industries · London
How Charter will measure itself
Serial acquirers are judged on the numbers they choose to publish. Charter is fixing its definitions before its first acquisition so that they cannot be adjusted afterwards to flatter a result.
| Governing measure | Return on capital employed, including goodwill. Acquisition premium is capital, and is charged against the return. |
|---|---|
| Operating profit | EBITA on a fixed definition. No adjustment for restructuring or "one-off" items. |
| Organic growth | Like-for-like, constant ownership, constant currency. Acquired growth shown separately, never blended. |
| Balance sheet | Net debt reported including the obligation to buy out management stakes, alongside the narrower bank-debt figure — never instead of it. |
| Subsidiary reporting | Monthly management accounts on one group template; a board conversation each quarter per company. |
Founder and board
Founder
A London-based investor with nearly twenty years underwriting and lending to European mid-market businesses as a creditor. The habit that transfers from that career is the creditor's one: assess whether a business can survive a bad year before deciding what it is worth in a good one. Named here on incorporation.
Governance
Charter is assembling an independent board of operators with long experience of decentralised industrial groups. Appointments will be announced here as they are made.
| Chair | Independent non-executive — appointment in progress |
|---|---|
| Non-executive directors | Operating backgrounds — to follow the chair |
| Founder | To be named on incorporation |
Owners, advisers, and everyone else
contact@charter-industries.co.uk
A short note is enough: what the business does, roughly how big it is, and what you are thinking about. Everything received is read personally and treated as confidential; we will sign a non-disclosure agreement before seeing anything you would rather your competitors did not.
Advisers. Charter works with accountants, brokers and corporate finance advisers as a matter of course and pays customary fees for introductions.
Press and general. Charter does not solicit investment through this website, and no information here is intended as a basis for any investment decision.
Charter Industries is the name of a holding company in formation in England. This website describes its intended acquisition activity. It is not a financial promotion and does not offer, or invite any person to apply for, any investment. Charter is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.