Tag Archives: Deals

Accountancy & Accounts, Appointments, News

Dealmaker Max Perry gains promotion at HURST

A dealmaker at independent accounting and business advisory firm HURST has been promoted to associate partner.

Max Perry joins the HURST board as a result of his promotion from associate director.

He has completed a range of transactions involving UK and overseas trade buyers and private equity buyers since joining HURST’s corporate finance team in December 2021 after roles at Deloitte and corporate finance boutique Camlee Group

His deal highlights at HURST include advising the shareholders of Huddersfield-based PCS Asbestos Consultants on the company’s sale to AIM-listed Marlowe, acting for the shareholders of financial advisory firm Financial Management Bureau on the sale of the Cumbria-based business to Finitor Wealth, and advising north west IT and telecoms solutions provider Active on its sale to technology company Babble.

Max is among a group of HURST’s rising stars who are taking part in a bespoke two-year leadership development programme.

HURST is the first accountancy firm headquartered in the north to launch a Vistage Inside programme for future leaders. Vistage, with 45,000 members worldwide, is a global leader in personal development and advisory groups for CEOs, key executives and leadership teams.

Nigel Barratt, partner and head of HURST’s corporate finance team, said: “Max has played a leading role in growing our business by successfully completing transactions with UK and international trade buyers and private equity buyers.

“He is currently working on a number of transactions, has brought new clients to the firm and has built strong relationships with existing ones. He’s passionate about developing team members and actively supports and mentors his colleagues.

“His promotion is well-deserved and we look forward to seeing Max continue to flourish as our corporate finance practice expands further.”

Max said: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at HURST so far and I’m especially grateful to Nigel, corporate finance partner Ben Bradley and Mike Jackson, the head of our business services team, for their guidance to date.

“I’m absolutely delighted to receive this promotion and to have been invited to join the board. The firm is so full of talented individuals, and the future is incredibly exciting. It’s an honour to be asked to play my part in it.”

HURST focuses on advising entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses with turnover of £10m and above across all sectors. Clients include Kinaxia Logistics, M&I Materials, Beechfield Brands, Duerr’s, Oliver Valves, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Krones UK, Creamline Dairies, Arighi Bianchi, Scapa Group and Hyde Group.

The firm will move its head office to a new flagship development in Stockport later this month to accommodate its growing team. HURST is taking 11,000sq ft at 3 Stockport Exchange, the latest phase of a £145m project by Muse Developments and Stockport Council.

It has been based since 1998 in Tiviot Dale in Stockport town centre, but has outgrown those premises. The new HQ will give the firm scope to expand from 120 staff to around 170, which it aims to achieve over the next three years.

Food & Drink, News, North of England

Panicium acquires The Bury Black Pudding Company

An award-winning iconic producer of black puddings is primed for ‘step-change growth’ after becoming the third acquisition for artisan speciality food group Panicium.

Panicium has acquired The Bury Black Pudding Company (BBP) for an undisclosed sum.

The deal follows Panicium’s acquisitions of handmade cakes and biscuits producer Margaret Hall and specialist potted meats and spreads manufacturer Binghams Food in 2018 and 2021 respectively.

BBP, founded by managing director Debbie Pierce, has expanded into a business with turnover of £11.5m, employing 122 staff operating from a 25,400sq ft factory in Bury.

Graham Norfolk, one of Panicium’s founding directors, said it remains business as usual for BBP and its workforce, adding that the group would invest to further grow the newly-acquired company and build on its strong foundations by introducing new product ranges, increasing its market share and expanding and developing customer relationships.

Debbie and production director Richard Morris remain in their roles and join Panicium’s senior management team following the acquisition.

BBP has over 50 years’ manufacturing experience and uses a gold medal-winning recipe that dates back over a century alongside traditional production methods.

Black pudding is synonymous with Bury and is part of the town’s heritage, and BBP’s dedication to quality has helped it become one of the leading brands in the UK.

BBP selects the finest quality ingredients and manufactures the healthiest black pudding on the market, with less than three per cent fat and no artificial preservatives. With its high iron and nutritional values, low-fat black pudding has been recognised as a superfood.

As well as its continued focus on the production of traditional black pudding, BBP has developed vegan, gluten-free and chilli varieties.

It has one of the longest-established stalls on Bury’s world-famous market, with generations of families coming to buy its renowned black puddings. The same black puddings are also supplied to major supermarkets, foodservice companies, wholesalers, hotels, butchers and restaurants across the UK.

Debbie began working on her local market at the age of 12 as a Saturday girl and spotted a gap in the market for a quality black pudding on supermarket shelves.

She became business partners with Richard, who had taken over his father’s black pudding business after spending his teenage years working there. Over the years, BBP has grown significantly and remains committed to offering local job opportunities, including taking on apprentices and teaching them skills in the food manufacturing industry.

Debbie said: “Having steadily grown our sales and developed new business, Richard and I decided that it was time to start the next phase of business growth through becoming part of a group that is committed to the quality of its products and maintaining the family values of which we are so proud. BBP is poised for step-change growth and will benefit from investment and market extension available through the Panicium group.

“Our product range is complementary to the Panicium strategy and we share a number of routes to market. Ultimately, our products are consumed by people who love artisan, quality food. We look forward to working with the Panicium team to develop the group’s position as a leading supplier of quality foods.”

Graham Norfolk said: “The Bury Black Pudding Company makes artisan, high-quality, delicious products with a distinctive brand, and complements Panicium’s strategy of acquiring companies in the UK artisan food sector to develop a portfolio of brands characterised by their hand-made, high-quality nature with a distinctly regional identity.”

Fashion, News

Grant Thornton completes deal hat-trick for ethical fashion group

A team from Grant Thornton UK LLP Transaction Advisory Services has advised on a hat-trick of transactions for an ambitious UK-based ethical fashion group, Refined Brands.

Having supported Refined Brands on the acquisitions of Frugi and Turtle Doves in late 2022, the team led by consumer sector specialists, John Panteli and James Pitts, has now advised on Refined Brand’s purchase of Kettlewell Colours, a Somerset-based ethical women’s fashion brand.

Founded in 2004 by Melissa Nicholson and her husband John, Kettlewell Colours has annual sales of nearly £9m. It sells wardrobe essentials in over 300 colours to customers internationally – working predominantly with small, family-run factories in Portugal, Turkey and the UK who share its environmental values.

Kettlewell Colours becomes the fourth brand in Refined Brands’ portfolio, which also includes Cornwall-based footwear and outerwear brand Celtic & Co. All share the same ethical and environmental values, using sustainable materials and working to a circular fashion model.

The Grant Thornton team provided financial and tax due diligence on both the Kettlewell Colours and Turtle Doves deals and buy-side support on the pre-pack acquisition of Frugi – which included support from the firm’s restructuring team (Alistair Wardell and Will Robinson).

John Panteli, Grant Thornton’s Head of Transaction Advisory Services in the South said: “With increasing consumer awareness over the environmental impact of the clothes we buy, Refined Brands has a clear and compelling strategy to build a differentiated group of brands with the highest ESG credentials.”

“We are delighted to have advised on these three important acquisitions and look forward to supporting the Refined Brands team as it continues its selective buy and build growth strategy.”

Refined Brands was founded in February 2021 by Refined Capital Partners, the investment company for a group of leading fashion industry figures including Ben Barnett, former CEO of TFG London (owner of the Phase Eight, Whistles and Hobbs brands) and retail veterans Michael Rahamim and Lee Harlow.

The group is funded by the team, in partnership with HSBC, Kvika Bank and Souter Investments, the family investment office of Stagecoach co-founder, Sir Brian Souter.

Finance and Banking, News, South East

Thames Valley deals team upbeat after ‘great year’

The Thames Valley region’s credentials as the ideal location for dynamic and ambitious companies to thrive will mean it will continue to attract investor interest in 2022, according to Grant Thornton UK LLP.

Reflecting on an “outstanding” 2021 for deals, Peter Jennings, Corporate Finance Partner at Grant Thornton is confident the high concentration of entrepreneurial and technology-focused businesses in the region – which after London is the UK’s fastest-growing regional economy – will lead to further activity this year.

During 2021 the team advised on 15 deals with a cumulative value of more than £750m. Over half of the deals were cross-border transactions, including the sale of defence consultancy Harmonic to US company KBR Inc, the sale of compliance software company Hamilton Grant to US based FoodChain ID and the investment in BAFTA-winning Surrey-based games developer Supermassive Games by Danish group Nordisk Games.

Peter says: “After an outstanding 2021 we are confident of maintaining our momentum this year.

“Private equity firms continue to be very active in the mid-market and ready to pay good multiples for the right business, particularly those in business support services, TMT, including digital infrastructure and data.

“In 2021 there was also a marked uptick in overseas trade buyers, especially from the US, acquiring UK assets and competing very strongly with Private Equity, and this is something we are continuing to see this year. There are several factors for this including the need to access the UK market post Brexit.”

He adds: “With close proximity to London and its outstanding talent pool and global connectivity, and a cluster of fast-growing and innovative mid-market technology-focused businesses, I am very confident the Thames Valley region will continue to be a deal-making hotspot in 2022.

“With concern over potential changes to capital gains taxes persisting, I believe many business owners will continue to review their options, which will also drive volumes in the near term.”

Nationally, after a record year of activity, Grant Thornton has been ranked the UK’s number one financial adviser by deal volume, in the latest Experian MarketIQ M&A Review.

The firm’s deals and business consulting practice completed 295 transactions overall with a disclosed transaction value of over £10bn.

News

Experian report confirms resilience of UK’s M&A market as recovery looks to be moving in an upwards trajectory

Experian recently published their UK and Ireland 2020 M&A Review, outlining the resilience of the UK’s M&A market, with dealmakers seemingly quick to adapt to completing transactions in the COVID-19 era – a trend that we noted at Smith Cooper Corporate Finance (SCCF).

Deal making during 2020 was a very mixed bag with volumes down by 15% on 2019, but 79% up in terms of value – albeit driven by £120bn of big-ticket deals in November and December.

Sector played a big part too; technology, media and telecoms represented around 28% of deals but, save for brisk business in professional services, most sectors recorded lower volume – sometimes much lower – than in 2019.

“The recovery of M&A activity, although variable between sectors, began in May, gaining notable traction in late Q3 early Q4 – driven by the unpredictability of the pandemic, fears of adverse changes to capital gains tax, and steady demand for quality businesses from buyers, especially those with funding. As a result, annual transaction volumes were better than feared given the temporary stagnation earlier in the year” says John Farnsworth, Head of Corporate Finance at SCCF, which retained its Experian Financial adviser top-10 ranking for 2020, rising to 8th place.

“As ever, there have been good and bad sectors – although many businesses, even in sectors detrimentally affected by COVID-19, have restarted with spirit, fuelled by prospects of pent-up consumer demand following lockdown, low interest rates, easy finance and an early budget; and this has led to increased deal activity.”
Although the Midlands remained the busiest region outside of London and the South East, representing 14% of total UK deals by volume, its performance was worse than in most regions in 2020 – it registered a 17% fall in volume and, against the UK trend, a precipitous 57% drop in value compared to 2019.

Surprisingly, the most severe decline occurred in the small deals market, whilst large deal numbers soared by 23%. Contrary to this, our experience at SCCF was quite the opposite, as Dan Bowtell, Corporate Finance Partner at SCCF explains: “Although we at SCCF have seen fewer large transactions complete this year – which has naturally led to a fall in total deal value – there has been a surge in small-medium sized deals, particularly where the companies involved benefit from strong management which reacted decisively and innovatively to the pandemic. From what we have seen, the small-mid market has recovered much quicker than the report suggests.”

“For many of our local clients, particularly those in retail or with international businesses, our central geographic location with its road, air and rail and distribution hubs allowed them to benefit from changing trends, such as the shift towards online shopping, by plugging directly into the UK’s transport networks – as a result, the Midlands recorded 189 deals in Wholesale and Retail.”

“Manufacturing remained the region’s most active sector in 2020 (223 deals) and, in our experience, remained virtually unaffected. For example, one of our clients who imports raw materials from the continent and UAE to make heavy-gauge metal infrastructure parts quickly adopted stock-building, rigorous social distancing and cleaning policies and a shift in market emphasis and, despite reported issues in importing from some supplier countries, traded very robustly and surpassed profitability budgets.”

Changing deal structures enabled continuity for deal making activity in the region

Darren Hodson, Corporate Finance Partner at SCCF notes “In the Midlands, we also saw a real change in the type of deal structures, which rapidly adapted to the risks implicit in the severe restrictions introduced by the Government to combat the spread of COVID-19.”

“During the uncertainty of 2020, many buyers were keen to defer part of the purchase price and make it contingent upon future performance. This increase in the use of performance-based earn-outs, bridges valuation gaps and mitigates the risk of profitability being damaged by the effects of the pandemic.”

In summary, whilst 2020 has been a challenging year, deals are still taking place. Many businesses believe that these deals are bottom of the market “distressed deals”, but this is contrary to what SCCF has experienced. We are seeing normal deal making activities resuming with premia being paid for good quality assets.