Hot on the heels of the sale of Meteor Parking to Vinci Parking, owners 3i have sold NSL to rival private equity business AAC Capital Partners for £120m. Earnings are reported to be about £15m on revenues of £155m.
The sale seems to have caught the UK parking industry by surprise, and other potential bidders were surprised to learn that the sale had been completed without it seems any opportunity for rivals to bid for the company. NSL had been the on-street half of NCP, the UK’s biggest parking company which 3i bought in 2005 and then split, selling the off-street half of the company to Australian bankers Macquarie.
NSL is best known for running public sector on-street parking contracts, providing parking enforcement to over 60 local authorities. It also provides services to the whole of Northern Ireland and holds the prestigious contract to manage the Abu Dhabi Parking system, probably the largest single contract in the world.
More controversially NSL recently won the contract to enforce parking in the city of Westminster following a re-tender of their service contract after the first round was abandoned. NSL were the incumbent operator and were able to secure renewal of the contract after a re-bid which was reportedly lower than their original bid 5 years ago. More recently the company has diversified into providing bus services at airports and recently bought ambulance service providers Patient First.
Peter Guest
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