Carwash sale cleans up £350m

THE world's biggest chain of conveyor belt carwashes today changed hands for £350m in a deal that saw its former venture capitalist owners triple their money.

London-based IMO, which also trades as ARC, was founded in 1965 in Germany by a carwash equipment manufacturer. The business was broken up in the 1990s, with its British arm being bought for £138m in 1999 by venture capitalists led by Bridgepoint.

The new owners then bought back the German division for about £80m and rapidly expanded the operation from 400 sites to 800 across Europe.

Today IMO was sold to private equity firm JP Morgan Partners, whose Stephen Welton said: 'We will work with the management to really expand this business dramatically across Europe for the next three years.'

The South of England is one of its main targets, with suitable retail sites on busy A roads becoming easier to buy given the dwindling demand from fast food drive throughs and petrol stations.

Bank of Scotland provided the debt financing for the deal, while JP Morgan advised its private equity division on the deal.

Other venture capitalists who took part in the previous Bridgepoint-led buyout included Phoenix and BNP Paribas.

IMO chief executive Bret Holden cashed in a small amount of his shareholding as part of today's deal.