Apollo to buy Miller Homes

Bridgepoint Group has entered an agreement to sell the UK housebuilder to funds managed by the American-based global asset manager Apollo.

Miller Homes is based in Scotland but has a regional office in the North West, located in Warrington. It has several large schemes in the region, including 224 homes on The Manchester College’s Northenden campus, 162 houses in Halewood and 287 homes in Widnes.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Apollo Funds has committed financing towards completing the acquisition. The deal is expected to complete within the first quarter of 2022.

Rothschild and Co. acted as the lead financial advisor to Bridgepoint, as well as Moelis & Company. Travers Smith was the legal counsel for Bridgepoint.

Barclays was the lead financial advisor, along with HSBC, to Apollo. Sidley Austin was the legal counsel.

DLA Piper provided legal advice to Miller Homes.

“This is an exciting development for Miller Homes in continuing our recent strong momentum,” said Miller Homes chief executive Chris Endsor.

“Apollo has deep housing expertise, with a global platform, extensive resources and capital to create value for all stakeholders,” he continued.

“I would like to thank the team at Bridgepoint for all the support they have provided during their ownership  of the business,” Ensor said. “The past four years have witnessed a period of expansion and strong operational performance for Miller Homes, as well as having to adapt the business in exceptional circumstances.

“We have emerged stronger for it and are very well-placed to achieve our medium-term target of 6,000 units  while maintaining the product quality and service for which we are known.”

Christopher Hojlo, Partner at Apollo, said: “We continue to see opportunities to invest in the residential  housing market as consumer demand for new homes accelerates. Today’s announcement further builds  on Apollo’s continued commitment to the housing sector, most recently including current and pending  investments by Apollo and its affiliates in U.S. homebuilder, The New Home Company, and leading U.K. specialist mortgage lender, Foundation Home Loans.

“We look forward to leveraging our industry knowledge  and relationships to scale the business and to provide more customers with high-quality family homes.”