CARLYLE Group is heading for a showdown with creditors and management of IMO Car Wash, the world’s biggest car-wash company.

The private-equity giant is at loggerheads with its lenders over the financing of IMO.

It is looking to bring in external advisers to lead the negotiations and has lined up NM Rothschild to provide advice.

It is understood that Carlyle has requested that its lenders restructure the £350m debt package that was arranged by HBOS to finance the 2006 purchase of IMO, which trades at 300 UK sites under the name Arc Clean Car Centres.

HBOS syndicated the debt to a consortium of banks including Allied Irish, Espirito Santo, CIC, Cooperative, Deutsche, Erste, Landesbanki and Singer & Friedlander.

Approval has been broadly given to the deal but some creditors are unhappy with the performance of the company and want Carlyle to inject more equity in return for a new debt structure.

Carlyle is also said to want to fund an expansion of IMO through the sale and leaseback of car-wash sites, a proposal that has been rejected by some lenders and the company's management.

The plan is unpopular because the firm’s property is its most valuable asset.

IMO has 900 car-wash sites in 14 countries, and washes more than 33m vehicles a year across Europe.

Its biggest presence is in Germany where it has 335 IMO sites.

The company, which was founded in Germany in 1965, has had a series of private-equity owners since 1998 when it was bought by Bridgepoint Capital in a £116m management buyout.

IMO was taken over by JP Morgan Partners in 2004, who then sold it on to Carlyle.

Many private-equity companies are expected to face requests to inject further capital into businesses in the coming months as an increasing number struggle against a worsening economic backdrop.

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