Henley Investment Management has set out to raise the third fund in a series aimed at building car wash facilities across the Southeast US under its AquaSonic brand. The London-based firm began marketing the strategy in summer 2023 and has raised $35 million in equity together with $45 million in debt across the first two funds.
Henley Car Wash Fund III has a target of $20 million of equity, rising to $50 million including leverage. The firm expects to launch the fourth fund in the series by year-end with the same target, which would take the program to $180 million of total capital.
AquaSonic Car Wash has officially broken ground on its first car wash location in Florida. Located at 6818 US Hwy 19, this location is strategically positioned to serve the New Port Richey and Port Richey residents with state-of-the-art car wash services. This momentous occasion represents a much larger entrance into the car wash industry, as AquaSonic currently has an additional 17 locations in the pipeline across cities in Florida, including Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Jacksonville.
Alternative real estate assets are increasing as a focus for investors and Ian Rickwood, CEO at Henley Investments highlights the tunnel car wash sector in the USA as a potential growth market, in an interview with Richard Betts of Real Asset Media.
“The reason why we got into the business in the first place was because the macros were so strong. We like it because it’s a just-under $20 billion market; it’s growing at 6% CAGR (compound annual growth rate); there are about 60,000 car washes in the US and yet the single biggest brand has only about 440, so it’s incredibly fragmented."
The car wash boom reflects a broader shift away from do-it-yourself car care habits. The number of washes done at professional facilities jumped from 50% in 1996 to 79% in 2021, according to the International Car Wash Association.
“We think this is the coffee market in the early ’90s, when Starbucks got going,” said Ian Rickwood, CEO and founder of Henley Investment Management. “One came to town, and people said, ‘$5 for a coffee, surely nobody will buy more than one cup a day.’ And of course...the category expanded because people began to change their habits.”
Henley Investment Management, the international investment and fund management firm focused on private equity real estate, has bought its first and second sites in Tampa, Florida, for a US car wash investment platform it intends to build to 100 locations by 2028.
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