The Shaw Trust has bought employment and skills company the Prospects Group, which has a revenue of £76m, making the charity the 14th largest in the UK.
A charity spokesman refused to say exactly how much the Shaw Trust paid for the company, which is employee-owned, but said it was “a fair and proportionate price in line with the commercial valuation of the business”.
He said the Shaw Trust purchased all of Prospects’ shares so is now the sole shareholder. Prospects will remain a for-profit subsidiary of Shaw Trust in the immediate future, and there are no plans to convert it into a charity.
There will be no immediate redundancies or changes in the management of either organisation, he added.
The two organisations have been working together for a number of years, including on Shaw Trust’s Work Choice project in Dorset, and the Prospect’s shareholders voted in favour of the acquisition on 30 November.
Roy O’Shaughnessy, chief executive of the Shaw Trust Group, said: “I am delighted that Prospects has joined our group. We deliver many complementary services and now, together, we can offer an even greater range of support to our customers.”
Nick Bell, chief executive of the Prospects Group, said: “Prospects is excited about joining the Shaw Trust Group.
“We have a very similar mission and values to Shaw Trust, and the merger of our organisations will enable us to create new opportunities and inspire more young people and adults a year to develop their potential.”
The two organisations, along with Shaw Education Trust, Ixion, Forth Sector and Disabled Living Foundation, form the Shaw Trust Group, which employs almost 3,200 staff and has a combined turnover of £250m.
A group leadership team has been appointed to oversee the activities of the Shaw Trust Group as a whole. This team will be reviewing the shape and structure of the group.
The Shaw Trust currently sits in 40th place in the haysmacintyre / Charity Finance 100 Index of the UK's largest charities, but would rise to 14th place following this acquisition.
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