Alpine Fire: a sprinkler contractor and the price of its debt

The business

A sprinkler system is a pipe full of water and a set of heads that open in heat. A warehouse full of other people's goods cannot get insurance without one, and building regulations require them in more buildings each year. The systems must be designed for the building, installed to standard and inspected for as long as the building stands.

Alpine Fire Engineers does all three. It was incorporated in February 1992 and is now based at Hollins Brook Park in Bury. It works for logistics companies, food and drink producers, carmakers and pharmaceutical plants, and the press has named BAE Systems and AG Barr among its customers.¹ In 2018 it had more than 30 staff and turnover above £15m. By the year to March 2025 it had 164 staff and turnover of £75.6m, almost all in the UK.⁶

WestBridge, the private equity firm that owns it, put the case in one sentence when it bought the business: "It operates in a niche market where growth is being driven by increasing regulatory requirements."¹

Two owners in four years

The first outside capital came in March 2018, when Core Capital Partners (later renamed Soho Square Capital) invested alongside the founding family. The terms were not disclosed. Companies House shows Core's general partner holding between a quarter and a half of the votes while a member of the Smith family held more than half of the shares.¹⁵ Core also took security over the group, which suggests the investment was part equity and part secured loan.

Four and a half years later Core sold. In December 2022 WestBridge II, a £140m fund that invests £10m to £20m in UK companies worth £15m to £40m, bought the group in a buyout led by management.⁹ The chief executive, Steve Nanda, explained the choice of buyer. "Although we received several approaches from trade buyers, we were keen to continue with a private equity partner."¹ TheBusinessDesk reported that Soho Square made four times its money.² That figure has a single source.

The accounts show how WestBridge paid.⁷ The consideration for the group was £34.9m. It was funded by:

• a £17m senior loan from Shawbrook at SONIA plus 7%, repayable in December 2028;
• £18.7m of loan notes issued to the shareholders at 12.5% a year, redeemable in December 2029;
• £6.6m of preference shares carrying a 12.5% cumulative dividend, also redeemable in December 2029;
• ordinary shares, for which £49,983 was paid in cash.

That last figure is the most instructive in the whole file. Almost all of the sponsor's money went in as a 12.5% instrument. The ordinary shares, which take everything left after the debt and the 12.5% instruments are paid, cost almost nothing. That is how most UK lower mid-market buyouts are built. It means management and the sponsor's ordinary shares are a small, highly geared bet on the business growing.

The refinancing

On 11 October 2024 three things happened at once. Alpine bought DAS Fire, a smaller competitor with data centre customers. It signed a new senior facilities agreement with Shawbrook and HSBC. And it gave the banks' security agent, Alter Domus, a debenture over every company in the group.^6,8

The press release called it "a refinancing package of up to £70 million".³ The audited accounts are more precise. They say the facility was refinanced on 11 October 2024, "extending the facility to £35,000,000 and a maturity date of 11 October 2030".⁶ The debenture refers to an "Incremental Facility Notice", which means the agreement allows the facility to be enlarged by agreement.⁸ The difference between £35m and £70m is probably that, and none of it is committed.

At the European Central Bank's rates for that day, £35m was about $45.7m and £70m about $91.5m.¹³

The terms improved. The 2022 loan carried a margin of 7% over SONIA, later 6.25% to 7%. The new one carries 5.50% to 6.25%, and runs two years longer.⁶ A range of margins usually means a ratchet: the margin falls as the borrower's leverage falls. The new facility was drawn in full, at £35m, repaying the old £17m and providing £18m towards DAS.

Shawbrook stayed. It had lent to WestBridge before, on its buyout of a care business in 2020.¹⁶ Its senior director said: "We are thrilled to continue to support Alpine in their ambitious growth journey." HSBC's leveraged finance team joined as the second lender.⁴ Clearwater was reported as debt adviser to the company.

The structure

At 31 March 2025, the claims on the group looked like this, from the most junior to the most senior.⁶

On our arithmetic from the accounts, operating profit before amortisation and depreciation was about £8.5m in the year to March 2025. That puts the senior debt at about 4.1 times earnings, or 2.1 times net of the £16.8m of cash the group held. It understates a full year, because DAS was in the group for only five and a half months. It is not the measure the banks use, which is not public.

Interest paid in cash, £2.8m, was almost exactly the interest on the bank loan. That suggests the 12.5% on the loan notes and preference shares is being accrued, not paid: it is added to what the sponsor will be owed in 2029. That is our inference.

What DAS cost

DAS Fire had turnover of £15.5m and operating profit of £4.3m in its year to March 2024.¹⁰ Alpine paid £35.8m in total: £25.9m in cash, £9.0m deferred and contingent on performance, and £0.9m of costs. DAS came with £7.4m of cash, so the net outflow was £19.4m.⁶

The price, excluding costs, was about 8.1 times DAS's operating profit. A quarter of it was deferred, which is common in a deal where the buyer wants the sellers to stay and the lender wants less paid upfront. The deferred amount is owed to the sellers and does not bear interest.

What happened next

In the first year with DAS, turnover rose 35%, of which 24 points came from the acquisition. Operating profit fell from £4.8m to £3.4m. The directors put that down to investment in staff and IT systems, and said the group "maintained strong underlying profitability".⁶ Interest payable rose to £6.8m, and after goodwill amortisation of £4.8m the group reported a loss after tax of £5.0m and net liabilities of £8.2m. Most of the interest is owed to the sponsor and most of the amortisation is the cost of past acquisitions spread over time. Neither is cash leaving the business.

The buying continued. Claire Owens became group managing director in November 2024 and chief executive in June 2025. Alpine Group bought Channel Fire in Kent in January 2026 and Richmond Fire Engineers in North Yorkshire in November 2026.¹⁴ No new charges have been registered since October 2024, so both appear to have been paid for within the existing facility or from cash.

Why it worked

Alpine is the kind of company that rarely makes the news and almost always gets financed. Its customers must buy what it sells, by law or by their insurers' rules. Much of its revenue is maintenance on systems it installed, which recurs. Its market is fragmented, so there is always another competitor to buy at a sensible price. And its owners put a structure around it that the banks understand: senior debt at about four times earnings, with sponsor money beneath it that is not paid in cash until the end.

Several UK fire safety groups have been financed the same way. Churches Fire took a £75m package from HSBC and others in 2021 after fourteen acquisitions, and EA-RS Group took £40m from Ares and Barclays in 2022.^11,12 Each was a regulated, fragmented, maintenance-heavy trade with a sponsor buying competitors. Lenders have learnt what they like, and they compete for it. That is why Alpine's margin fell by about a point in under two years.

What we do not know

• What "up to £70m" consists of, and whether any of the incremental facility has been agreed.
• The split between Shawbrook and HSBC, the fees, covenants, amortisation and any hedging.
• Who holds the ordinary and preference shares, and whether the founding family or Soho Square kept a stake.
• The terms of Core Capital's 2018 investment.
• The lenders' measure of earnings, and the group's earnings with a full year of DAS.
• How Channel Fire and Richmond were paid for, and at what price.
• Whether the £9m DAS deferred consideration has been earned.

Cite as: “Alpine Fire: a sprinkler contractor and the price of its debt”, Norvian Review, 4 November 2026.