The move follows FMG’s management buyout earlier this year led by former executive chairman Andrew Cope, and sees the FMG management team invest a significant proportion of their equity into Redde plc shares, as part of that wider investment into the group’s future strategy and the ongoing development of its vehicle claims and support service solutions.
In a statement, FMG said the “acquisition will see increased Group resources combining with FMG’s continued innovation and reputation for quality of service; to deliver a solid platform to further develop our end-to-end claims management and specialist vehicle recovery services in the UK”.
The company added that it was “strongly attracted to the deal on a number of fronts; not least Redde plc’s ability to invest for the long term, further enhance the overall product and service offering to its customers and support FMG’s market leading multi-product digital platform development”.
Andrew Cope will continue as a non-executive director, advising on strategy, supporting the management and developing the business. All FMG’s existing management team including John Catling, managing director of commercial, Mark Chessman, managing director of operations and Rachael Nevins CFO, will continue as FMG’s business leadership team.
Andrew Cope commented: ‘This is a truly exciting day in the long history of FMG. We strongly believe that marrying FMG’s people, knowledge and innovative capacity; to Redde plc’s long term investment and commitment to the vehicle claims market, will result in an outstanding service and technical proposition for our customers today, tomorrow and well into the future."
Martin Ward, chief executive of Redde, said: “The addition of FMG to the Redde group supports our strategic objective of growing earnings on a sustainable basis and broadening the scope of services we offer which are related to our core businesses. FMG is a quality business and has a strong reputation in its fields of business for serving its customers well. We have worked together in the legal services arena for a number of years and this acquisition is a further step in strengthening Redde's proposition to its customers as we build on our recent successes.”
The deal is now awaiting final regulatory approval before completion.