PwC’s Special Situations M&A team advises Rivus Fleet Solutions Limited on the sale of certain business and assets to the Metropolitan Police Service

PwC’s Special Situations M&A team is pleased to announce that it has successfully advised Rivus Fleet Solutions Limited (“Rivus”), on the sale of the majority of its business and assets to the Metropolitan Police Service (“MPS”).

Headquartered in Birmingham, Rivus provided fleet management and repairs and maintenance services for fleets of light commercial vehicles. The financial performance of Rivus had been significantly impacted by the cessation of a number of large customer contracts, encumbering the business with a large operational cost base and resulting in trading losses which could not be mitigated, despite the successful tender of a fleet management contract with the MPS and the implementation of a number of cost reduction measures.

As a result of ongoing trading challenges and with a lack of alternative funding options, the majority shareholder appointed PwC’s Special Situations M&A team to explore a sale of the business with objective of recapitalising the business to provide a platform to execute the business plan and ensure continuity of operations for existing contracts. After a fulsome marketing period, the majority of the business and assets were sold to the MPS, executed via a pre-packaged administration.

PwC provided comprehensive support throughout the process, assisting with the navigation of an accelerated sales process, facilitating negotiations with prospective buyers and managing due diligence, culminating in the successful sale of the majority of the business and assets to the MPS, ensuring continuity of a critical service, at a time of national importance, and safeguarding 165 jobs.

The PwC Special Situations team for the transaction was led by Jack Tedcastle, Andrew Ritchie, Richard Carter and Ella Davis.

Timothy Higgins, Jane Steer and Zelf Hussain have been appointed as joint administrators of Rivus Fleet Solutions Limited.