Sale of Wild Automotive to The Sertec Group creates £250 million automotive engineering powerhouse

Posted: 20/09/2016

The sale of Midlands-headquartered Wild Automotive to major automotive supplier The Sertec Group has created a £250 million turnover group with ten manufacturing plants across the UK, Germany and Hungary.

Law firm Penningtons Manches acted for the selling shareholders of AWC Industries Ltd, the holding company for Wild Automotive and a precision engineering group specialising in the manufacture of high quality precision components and assemblies for high profile automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. It has manufacturing operations in Birmingham, Redditch, Germany and Hungary.

The Sertec Group has five manufacturing sites in the Midlands plus a tooling operation in China. Its primary experience is in steel and aluminium body structural assemblies.

The 12 strong multi-disciplinary team from Penningtons Manches was led by corporate partners James Went and David Tighe supported by corporate tax partner Stephen Goldstraw, employment partner Daff Richardson and members of the firm’s real estate team. Quercus Corporate Finance provided corporate finance advice to the sellers.

James Went commented: "We have acted for the Wild Group for more than 12 years as Allan and Shirley Cook have built it into the successful business it is today. It’s a pleasure to have been with them throughout their journey and to see a great manufacturing success story move on to the next phase of its growth."

Allan Cook, CEO and principal shareholder of AWC Industries, commented: “I have worked with Penningtons Manches on all of our transactions since 2003 and have been very impressed with the level of dedication and professionalism that they brought to everything they have done for us.”

The transaction was funded by Lloyds Banking Group, Business Growth Fund and Santander Bank.

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