The market

Three converging forces. One window.

The UK compliance services sector is experiencing a period of regulatory-driven, structural growth. Three converging forces make this an attractive moment to build a scaled platform.

3.1 · Building Safety Act 2022 — mandatory compliance uplift

The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced the most significant change to UK fire and structural safety regulation in decades. Key obligations now enforceable include:

• Duty-holder accountability across design, construction, and occupation phases
• Golden-thread requirement: digital documentation of all safety-critical information maintained throughout the building lifecycle
• Higher-Risk Building inspection and certification regime, managed by the Building Safety Regulator
• Enhanced Remediation Orders for residential buildings — driving significant passive-fire and fire-door remediation programmes

3.2 · Competitor landscape — a three-tier market

The UK compliance and building-services market resolves into three clearly differentiated tiers. AMPM Group sits between Tier 2 and Tier 3, with a clearly defined route to scaled Tier 2 within the hold period.

Tier 1 — Strategic acquirers · Marlowe Group, Mitie

Marlowe Group (£400m+ revenue) and Mitie operate at scale well beyond AMPM's near-term target range. Both are listed or institutional-backed acquirers operating national frameworks. They validate the exit thesis — they are the natural buyers of a scaled AMPM Group at the end of the hold period — but they are not direct competitors at the contract level. Their minimum acquisition interest begins at revenue levels AMPM is targeting as a 5-year destination, not a starting point.

Tier 2 — Mid-market roll-up · andwis Group

andwis Group is the most directly comparable platform to AMPM. Incorporated in August 2022 and backed by H.I.G. Capital (€8bn+ AUM), andwis has assembled 18 operating companies across five service divisions — fire and security, environmental services, lifts and entrance, maintenance and response, and M&E — generating £300m+ revenue from 25,000 customers with 2,200+ employees. Credit data (Experian, May 2026) confirms H.I.G. as the ultimate holding entity, with Ares Management and Barclays providing the debt stack. Long-term liabilities at HoldCo level reached £112.7m at December 2024, with £17.8m of annual interest cost — a heavily leveraged structure typical of aggressive PE-backed acquisition programmes.

andwis serves as the strongest possible proof of concept for the AMPM Group model: an institutional PE firm deployed significant capital into a technical building-services consolidation play in the same market, with the same acquisition-led approach, in the same period. That it reached £300m+ in under three years demonstrates both the availability of acquisition targets and the appetite of strategic buyers at scale.

andwis is also a credible addition to the exit acquirer pool. At their current acquisition pace, they will require more London and southern-England fire- and life-safety capacity. A scaled AMPM Group — with accreditation depth, a proprietary portal, and an established client base — is precisely the type of platform they acquire.

Tier 2 — A second comparable · HSL Compliance

HSL Compliance is backed by IK Partners (IK Small Cap III Fund) since March 2025, having previously been grown by LDC (Lloyds Banking Group's private-equity arm) from 2019. Under LDC ownership, HSL completed 11 bolt-on acquisitions and quadrupled pro-forma revenues to £77 million in six years. IK Partners' stated strategy is expansion into multi-disciplinary compliance services. HSL's primary specialism is water hygiene and treatment, with secondary services in fire safety, air quality and asbestos — making it both the clearest PE blueprint for the AMPM Group model and a credible exit acquirer. With H.I.G. Capital, IK Partners, Marlowe and Mitie all active, three separate PE firms have deployed significant capital into UK compliance-services roll-ups within the last six years — institutional-level validation of the thesis.

Tier 3 — Local independents

Below the mid-market roll-ups sit hundreds of sub-£5m regional operators. These are not strategic threats — Gemini AMPM has consistently won against them on quality, accreditation depth, and client trust. They are, however, the primary acquisition targets for AMPM Ventures. Their value is in their client books, their geographic coverage, and in some cases their operators — not in their balance sheets or systems.

3.3 · Public-sector framework access — EOT competitive advantage

PPN 06/20 (Taking Account of a Supplier's Approach to Carbon Reduction and Social Value) scores social value as a mandatory element of public-sector procurement. Employee-owned businesses score materially higher than privately-owned competitors. Gemini AMPM's EOT structure provides a genuine, structural advantage in competitive tendering for:

• Local authority property portfolios
• NHS and healthcare estates
• Education frameworks (universities, academies, maintained schools)
• Social-housing providers and registered social landlords

3.4 · Sector fragmentation — acquisition pipeline

The compliance services market remains highly fragmented below the Marlowe and Mitie tier. There are hundreds of sub-£5 million regional operators with loyal client books but no succession plan; complementary accreditations (gas, water hygiene, lifts); geographic coverage the Group does not yet hold; and key operators whose relationships and contracts represent the real value.

This fragmentation creates a favourable acquisition environment. Vendors in the £1–5 million revenue range typically trade at 3–5x EBITDA, creating meaningful value-creation opportunity when integrated into a platform business that should command 6–8x on exit.