Waterland Private Equity partners with Black & White Engineering

Established in 2014, Black & White has emerged as a premier engineering design consultancy to top-tier data centre operators throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The business today employs over 500 people and works with 110 clients across 23 countries. Waterland's investment represents an exciting opportunity to further enhance Black & White's already impressive track record and bolster its global expansion ambitions. With Waterland as a strategic partner, Black & White aims to broaden support for customers across both new geographies and through widening its engineering offering with new specialisms. This will be delivered through organically broadening its footprint into new territories and pursuing strategic acquisitions across Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Mick Cairns, CEO and founder Black & White, will remain integral to the business, continuing as CEO alongside the Black & White leadership team. A cornerstone of Black & White's success lies in the culture that Mick and the leadership team have fostered within the business and the calibre of talent this has attracted. This culture of excellence will be preserved. The Black & White leadership team will all be remaining with the businesses following the partnership with Waterland.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mick Cairns, Founder of Black & White said: “Black & White has grown hugely since I founded the business and I could not be prouder of our team, who have helped us to reach this huge milestone in our journey. We are delighted to be partnering with Waterland and leveraging their track record of international growth and acquisition experience. We are looking forward to supercharging the momentum we have built with Waterland acting as a hands-on partner, which supports our vision and ambitions.”

Wendy McMillan, Partner at Waterland Private Equity, commented: “Mick Cairns is an impressive entrepreneur who has built an outstanding business. We look forward to supporting Mick and the senior team in this next chapter and will continue to back their philosophy of investing in people and working together with the best talent to create a global leader in engineering for the data centre market. We will be leveraging our network and expertise in acquisitions and international expansion to help Black & White reach the next level and we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the business.”

The investment in Black & White represents Waterland’s continued interest in this market having recently partnered with MTM Engineering (2022) and Writech (2021) in Ireland, and having successfully exited Netrics data centre business in 2022.