Waterland Private Equity has acquired childcare services provider Sandcastle Care (Sandcastle).

Operating in the North West of England, Sandcastle provides high quality, highly nurturing residential care for some of the most vulnerable young people in society. The business has been operating small care homes since 2004, and now offers long term therapeutic care across 18 sites.

Sandcastle operates an ‘in house’, proprietary therapeutic care model, providing tailored and consistent care to over 50 young people across Blackpool, Lancaster, Preston and Cumbria.

The deal represents Waterland’s 3rd UK platform investment and its 8th transaction since opening a UK office in 2017. Waterland is a Pan-European private equity house that specialises in buy & build strategies and is investing from its 7th fund, which stands at €2 billion.

Waterland Private Equity was advised by Clearwater International (Corporate Finance), Addleshaw Goddard (Legal), Deloitte (Financial Due Diligence), PwC (Tax), Candesic (Commercial Due Diligence) and GK Strategy (Political Due Diligence). Sandcastle was advised by CLB Coopers (Corporate Finance & Tax) and Shoosmiths (Legal).  External funding was provided by Barclays.

The Waterland team was led by Andy Scaife and Ryan Hallworth with support from Robin Elley. Scaife said “We are delighted to be investing in the Sandcastle Group. We believe the experience of the management team, the superior quality of service delivery and the high quality of care staff set Sandcastle apart from its competition. The Sandcastle future is bright and exciting and we look forward to supporting the ambitious growth strategy set by the senior leadership team.”                          

Darren Yates, CEO, Sandcastle Care, also added “Waterland have been a pleasure to deal with and I have been greatly impressed with their absolute determination to maintain the high standards that Sandcastle Care have always been proud of. They have really understood from day one that the quality and level of care we provide is paramount. My senior management team and I are excited about the future and we are all looking forward to working with Waterland and expanding our quality service within the sector.”