Sullivan Street Partners, Ancora Group Acquire Red7Marine
Sullivan Street Partners, a UK-based private equity firm specializing in mid-market buy-outs, announced that its portfolio company Ancora Group, an integrated group of marine contractors delivering infrastructure and coastal defense solutions across the UK, has completed the acquisition of Red7Marine, a UK marine infrastructure and engineering work specialist.
This is Ancora Group’s first acquisition since it was acquired by Sullivan Street in March 2025, when SSP integrated Teignmouth Maritime Services, Hesselberg Erosion Protection and Marine Plant Hire. Ancora was established to bring together marine civils, erosion protection and specialist marine plant capability under a single structure and specializes in complex multi-disciplinary marine infrastructure projects across the UK’s ports, waterways and tidal coastal environments.
Founded in 1999, Red7Marine is a specialist marine engineering business headquartered in Ipswich, Suffolk. Its work spans marine civils, flood defense, offshore renewables, cables and nuclear infrastructure. The business offers tailored support throughout a project’s lifecycle with an in-house engineering and fabrication team and a fleet of jack-up barges and marine plant.
This deal unites two of the UK’s leading marine engineering businesses and strengthens the Ancora Group’s self-delivery capabilities, particularly through Red7Marine’s fleet of specialist jack-up vessels. It will also broaden the group’s national geographic reach by adding a stronger presence on the south coast.
The acquisition supports SSP’s strategy of building a nationwide network of self-delivering marine contractors with specialist expertise, in-house capability and the scale to support complex infrastructure projects. The investment also reflects the increasing demand for resilient marine infrastructure, driven by climate-related pressures, ageing infrastructure and coastal protection needs.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Sullivan Street and Ancora Group were supported by advisors Burges Salmon (legal counsel), RSM (financial diligence) and PWC (tax diligence).
