The four-year facility will be used to purchase the 100% shareholding from the founders and provide working capital to accelerate continued growth.

The firm – based in Dundee and established in 2001 – is an all trades property maintenance company, which covers central and north-east Scotland in the maintenance of social, private, public sector housing and commercial properties.

Services include construction, development, building repair and maintenance works and QAPM has a diverse range of clients across Dundee, Angus, Fife and Perthshire.

It currently employs 70 people; 40 directly and 30 sub-contractors.

Steve said that he had spent five frustrating months getting nowhere with the banks, so was very pleased to be introduced to ThinCats.

•   ThinCats appoints new head of credit
•   ThinCats delivers £3m funding line to Abokado
•   P2PFA members approach £9bn lending mark

“[It] showed a real interest in the business and a willingness to see the opportunity going forward; a real sea change from the traditional funding providers we had been speaking to previously. 

“Having visited us to learn more about our business and having seen that the figures stacked up, ThinCats moved quickly to accelerate the process and completed the deal within just two months.”

Steve added that it had received an offer from a third party seeking to acquire the business and this inevitably put some pressure on the timescales for completion.

“ThinCats rose to the challenge and gave us the certainty that [it] would see the deal through to meet our deadline,” Steve continued. 

“[It] made decisions quickly, [was] responsive throughout and did exactly what [it] said [it] would do, without [moving] the goalposts.”

Geoff O’Brien, business originator for Scotland at ThinCats (pictured above), added: “We are delighted to support Steve Ward in his MBO of the business that he has built up so successfully over the years. 

“With blue-chip clients, a buoyant market and the investment that has been made in people and technology, QAPM is ideally placed for continued growth.”