The acquisition of a port services and maritime haulage business by Enact, the SME fund managed by private equity house Endless, has been named as Deal of the Month for November.

Established in 2000, SEA Transport is a family-owned port centric business, providing services to the maritime container sector. The company trades from an operational footprint of 100,000 sq ft, which includes an 82,000 sq ft bonded warehouse on Felixstowe port, Suffolk.

Enact is supporting a management buy-in (MBI) team, while retaining the incumbent founding family members. The deal is expected to support further growth from Felixstowe while extending the business model across multiple UK ports, leveraging existing customer relationships to provide a controlled expansion of the business.

Paul Lyon, with extensive experience at The Road Haulage Association, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors. Incoming CEO Richard Preston, who will be supporting the multi-site roll out, commented: “This is a great opportunity for the business to continue its growth trajectory and reach its true potential backed by respected investor, Enact, leaning on the wealth of experience already within SEA Transport, but also adding to that with the team that have been brought together.”

Enact Fund III, a £100 million Fund launched in June 2022, invests transformational capital of up to £10 million into UK based SMEs. The individuals who comprise the investor base of Enact Fund III include institutional investors and a network of private investors. The single biggest investor in the Fund is the Endless and Enact partner and employee group.

Enact was advised by James Cook and Sarah Tallant of Womble Bond Dickinson and Russ Cahill of the Tax Advisory Partnership. The MBI team was advised by Gavin Jones and Bhavin Chandarana of GJC Advisory and Jonathan Pollard at Ward Hadaway. SEA was advised by Gotelee.