33 CORPORATE FINANCE TEAM
OF THE YEAR AWARD
SPONSORED BY HSBC WINNER GRANT THORNTON
Above and right: The winning Grant Thornton team with Duncan Lamb and Wendy Hart (centre front row), and Mark Durden-Smith
A total of 15 different firms were entered for Corporate Finance Team of the Year, many receiving multiple nominations and demonstrating this is one of the most sought- after titles.
Category sponsor HSBC and fellow judges spent a long time going through entries before deciding on a shortlist of four.
It saw BDO, Deloitte and Grant Thornton vying for top honours and each aiming to knock HMT Corporate Finance’s name off the trophy it won last year. Not to be outdone though, HMT had received enough support to join the shortlist again.
In the past 12 months, the Henley-on- Thames firm’s deals have included the MBO of Lymington Precision Engineers; Gooch & Housego’s acquisition of US manufacturer EM4 Inc., the MBI of Redeem; brightsolid’s £25 million acquisition of Friends Reunited; and financial due diligence for the Guralp Systems deal.
With 17 deals equating to more than £100m of deal value over the qualification period for the awards, the BDO team has also been more than busy.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2011
Among its highlights were Winchester-based Box-IT UK’s acquisition of Stortext FM for £4m and the sale of Guildford’s Waterfall Solutions for £5.5m to Digital Barriers; the MBOs of Fenn Wright & Manson and Kenda Electronic Systems; together with the acquisition of Isle of Wight skin care retailer Liz Earle Beauty by Avon Products.
Deloitte’s regional team chalked up some 15 deals over the past year, including the £257m acquisition by Bridgepoint of LGC Group; the £10m sale of Credit Solutions Holdings to arvato Finance and the investment by Gresham Private Equity in IND.
It also advised The Entertainer of the sale of The Gadget Shop business to WH Smith and supported the IPO for AZ Electronic Materials, one of the most significant British IPOs of the year.
For Grant Thornton it was an “excellent“ year of growth and successful transactions. Its name was linked with some of the most talked about deals of the night, including the £20m disposal of Guralp Systems to Primary Capital and the £9m MBO of Kerridge Commercial Systems from ADP Inc. One nomination said the team’s capability to
generate and close a very high number of deals had made it a “clear leader“ in the field.
The judges obviously agreed and it was Mark Frettingham, HSBC’s head of Corporate Banking Southern, who read out the Grant Thornton name and welcomed the team on stage.
Duncan Lamb, director Corporate Finance at Grant Thornton, said: “I am delighted for the whole team that we have achieved the recognition they so richly deserve. The success of the team is down to their hard work both in generating and executing opportunities in what remains a very difficult market.
“What is even more pleasing is the quality as well as the quantity of transactions that we, as a whole team, have worked on. This, I believe, is enhanced by the reputation that the team now has in specific sector specialisms including technology, engineering, retail and healthcare.“
www.businessmag.co.uk
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