SENIOR management of Crown Paints is close to completing a buyout of the British paint company for around £70m.

The deal is being led by managing director Howard Luft and backed by the private-equity house Endless Investments, which is thought to be taking a majority stake in the firm.

Endless is expected to invest in the company’s production facilities, support the modernisation of sites and the redevelopment of more than 100 Crown Decorating Centres — outlets where the paint is sold.

Crown employs 1,500 people and has annual sales of £190m. Factories at Darwen in Lancashire, Warrington, Hull, Belfast and Dublin are all likely to remain in operation.

Endless manages £300m of funds. Other investments include the discount book retailer The Works, electrical- goods retailer Homebuy and window maker Speed Frame.

The deal to buy Crown Paints follows its recent appointment as shirt sponsor to Blackburn football club on a three-year deal worth £5m to the team depending on performance.

The company was once famous for sponsoring shirts for Liverpool football club during the 1980s.

Lancashire-based Crown is being sold by the Dutch chemicals giant Akzo Nobel. Akzo also owns Dulux, which it acquired as part of an £8 billion takeover of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) last year.

A European court ruling has forced the sale of Crown Paints because the ICI deal gave Akzo control over more than half of the UK paint market.

Akzo is the No 1 paint manufacturer in Britain with about 45% of the market. Crown Paints is No 2 with a market share of about 15%. Akzo is also being forced to dispose of the Berger, Macpherson, Permoglaze and Sandtex brands.

ICI was formed in 1926 by the merger of four British chemical companies, and became one of the largest paint makers with Dulux as its foremost brand.

Endless said: “We don’t comment on any of our transactions prior to completion.”

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