Contollo Group Ltd, a new building consultancy group backed by private equity firm NorthEdge, has completed the acquisition of mechanical and electrical (M&E) consultancy, TACE.

The transaction marks the second acquisition Contollo has made this year after completing its inaugural partnership in February with Abacus, a leading cost and project management consultancy.

With offices in Manchester, Liverpool and London, TACE is a specialist building-services consulting-engineering practice which serves the public and private sectors with a focus on education, sports facilities and multi-unit accommodation. Its 35 staff will remain within the business operating from their existing office locations.

Speaking about the acquisition, Ruth Percival, CEO of Contollo Group, commented: “TACE has a reputation for excellence in engineering with a specialism in highly sustainable, large-scale, government-backed projects and we’re very proud to welcome them to the Contollo Group.

“Contollo was established to bring together highly respected regional consultancies, to create a national multi-disciplinary group and TACE is the first M&E consulting business to join.

“We’ve built a great relationship with the leadership team and look forward to working with Nigel Griffiths, Nick Thomas and James Massey to help build our nationwide capacity and we expect to make further acquisitions imminently.”

Nigel Griffiths, director TACE added: “Joining the Contollo Group is the perfect next step for TACE as our business evolves. It will enable us to offer greater scale, expand our additional services and build our range of sector-specific capabilities.  Working within the Contollo Group will allow us to offer the same exceptional service to our clients, whilst also bringing extra benefits through our shared expertise and values.”

Contollo Group has set out its ambition to acquire up to seven businesses in the North West, Midlands, and South East over the next five years as part of its ambitious growth programme, which now brings the head count in the Group to 140.

For Contollo, Langtons provided finance advisory and financial due diligence, Chiara Pettinicchio provided client-side deal support, Alvarez & Marsal Manchester provided corporate finance advisory and project management, Cowgills provided tax due diligence and Mills & Reeve provided legal support.

JMW Legal and Jones & Harris acted for TACE.