Avove acquired by HIG Capital

H.I.G. Capital acquired Avove on 28 July 2026 from Rubicon Partners, alongside Fourwinds. Chief executive Mark Perkins and his management team reinvested and remained in place. Rubicon Partners had held the company since April 2022, having carved it out of Amey’s utilities division. Headquartered at Chorley in Lancashire, Avove designs, builds, commissions and maintains the infrastructure through which water and electricity reach their users: treatment works, water and wastewater networks, power distribution assets, and the ecological and vegetation management accompanying them. It acts as principal contractor, taking responsibility from design through to handover for the regulated utilities operating those networks. It employs more than 900 people across Britain and Ireland. The water investment cycle explains the timing. English and Welsh water companies operate under five-year settlements that determine what they must spend, and the eighth of these, running from 2025, commits substantially more than its predecessors to replacing ageing assets, reducing sewage discharges and strengthening networks against flooding and drought. The contractors qualified to deliver that work have a volume of it fixed years ahead. The business traces back to ARM Services, founded in 1964 to serve telecommunications before moving into water, which became part of Enterprise plc and then of Amey after Ferrovial acquired it in 2013. Rubicon Partners separated the utilities division in 2022 and renamed it, after which revenue doubled and the company acquired the Irish operations of Jacopa in 2025.

In the past, Avove was acquired by Rubicon Partners in 2022 as part of its expansion strategy.