Accel-KKR has agreed to buy London-listed construction software group Eleco plc for £207.6m on a fully diluted basis, paying 235p a share in cash — a 74.7% premium to the previous closing price — with 45.2% of the register already committed.
Eleco was founded in 1895 and has spent decades reinventing itself from a building products business into a construction technology group, selling project management, estimating and visualisation software to contractors and developers across the UK and continental Europe. It has been listed in London since the outbreak of the Second World War.
The offer, announced on 10 September, values the equity at £207.6m and the business at an enterprise value of £192.4m. The gap reflects Eleco's £16.3m cash pile and the absence of debt on its balance sheet.
Accel-KKR, the California-based private equity firm that specialises in mid-market software, is structuring the deal as a scheme of arrangement. Shareholders representing 45.2% of the register have signed irrevocable undertakings or issued letters of intent to back it.
The price marks a sharp re-rating. At 235p in cash, the offer sits 74.7% above where Eleco shares closed the day before the announcement — the kind of premium that has become common as private capital picks over small-cap London technology names trading well below their US comparables.
On the numbers, Eleco was growing into the multiple. For the twelve months to 31 December 2025 it reported revenue of £38.8m, up 20%, and adjusted EBITDA of £10.2m, up 32%. Annualised recurring revenue rose 29% to £34.3m, with recurring income accounting for 81% of the total.
That puts the deal at 20.2 times EBITDA and 31.9 times cash EBITDA.
Non-executive chair Mark Castle said the board "has unanimously concluded that they intend to recommend this offer". Maurice Hernandez, a managing director at Accel-KKR, said Eleco "has built a leading construction technology platform".
For Eleco's public shareholders, the outcome is a clean cash exit at a substantial premium after a period of double-digit growth. For the London market, it is another software business leaving the register.
The pattern is now well established: UK-listed technology companies with high recurring revenue, clean balance sheets and modest scale are being taken private at valuations the public market had declined to award them. Eleco's 81% recurring revenue base and debt-free position made it precisely the profile buyout firms have been hunting.
Completion remains subject to shareholder approval and the customary regulatory conditions.
Original source: BusinessCloud — https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/accel-kkr-agrees-207m-swoop-for-131-year-old-eleco-plc/
