Private equity firm, Nevis Capital, has supported its portfolio business, James Ramsay, to acquire the specialist boiler hire business, HCS Energy.

The acquisition is the first for James Ramsay, with more planned.

Managing director of James Ramsay, Raymond Shepherd, said: “We are delighted to acquire one of the leading specialist hire businesses in our sector. It complements the Ramsay business well and will allow us to provide a wider offering to both companies’ customer bases.”

HCS Energy is a leading independent boiler hire company in Scotland with a fleet ranging from 200kW to 2,200kW. It provides containerised temporary boiler facilities to a wide range of customers including councils, schools, care homes and commercial businesses.

Nevis plans to invest significantly to expand the fleet of boilers further and broaden maintenance support to customers.

Nevis backed operations director, Raymond Shepherd, to step up to managing director and to complete a buy-out of the industrial pipework and heating specialist, James Ramsay, in 2013. The Glasgow based company installs, services, maintains and repairs all types of commercial and industrial boilers and heating systems across Scotland. Since the deal, the business has grown organically by over 40% and relocated to new facilities to support further growth.

HCS was formed by Jim Garrity and has been providing temporary and emergency heating and hot water across Scotland for over 15 years. The business operates a 24 hour emergency call out and has supported many public sector and commercial customers with heating and hot water at critical times.

Brian Aitken, partner at Nevis Capital, said: “We are pleased to have supported another bolt-on to our portfolio. We are seeing a number of new opportunities to invest and remain keen to find more deals as we move into 2016.”

The deal, that sees the firm return to the hire sector, is the latest move by Nevis which has now completed 18 deals since setting up in 2007.