Aquila Heywood has posted a group turnover of £37.3m for the 12 months to April 30, 2021, up from the £32.4m it achieved in the prior year
A group which provides pensions administration software to the likes of Tesco, Asda and Royal London grew its turnover in the year it was acquired by a BlackRock fund.
Aquila Heywood was formed from the merger of two separate companies in 2002, with the Aquila part of the group subsequently being sold to Equiniti, a FTSE-250 company that has itself attracted takeover interest in recent weeks.
Aquila Heywood, which is headquartered in Altrincham, has posted a group turnover of £37.3m for the 12 months to April 30, 2021, up from the £32.4m it achieved in the prior year.
The group’s pre-tax profits dipped slightly from £21.7m to £21m over the same period.
Subsidiaries of Aquila Heywood include Heywood Ltd, ATMOS Data Services and i-Connect.
The accounts, published on Companies House, come after BlackRock Long Term Private Capital snapped up the group in February 2021 for a reported £350m.
At the time, the partnership with Aquila Heywood was BlackRock LTPC’s third investment overall and second in Europe.
The other businesses bought by its long-term private equity fund include Creed, a family-owned perfume manufacturer, which it acquired a year ago.
It has also backed Authentic Brands Group, which was one of the unsuccessful bidders in the recent auction of TopShop, the British fashion chain.
Aquila Heywood’s customers also include Fujitsu, Merseyside Pension Fund and Kier.
A statement signed off by the board said: Management is confident in the group’s ability to continue to deliver high-quality products and services to maintain market share, as well as securing sales of additional modules and services to our customers. 2021 has been a good year for the group.
Revenue and profits for the ongoing operations showed a strong increase during the year, it said.
It said: The pipeline of secured business is strong, giving confidence that this upward trend will accelerate in 2022 and the potential opportunities we are now seeing should result in solid profit growth being sustained for the longer term.