36 CORPORATE FINANCE TEAM
OF THE YEAR AWARD
SPONSORED BY LEUMI ABL WINNER Spectrum Corporate Finance
Above: Simon Davies of Spectrum
Right: The Spectrum team collect their award from Jonathan Hughes (front right) of sponsor Leumi
With Ian Barton of HMT having already claimed the 2014 Corporate Finance Adviser of the Year title the question in the room was: Could HMT do the double?
The challenge for HMT was that they were up against four other excellent contenders: Deloitte, Grant Thornton, James Cowper, and Spectrum Corporate Finance.
HMT’s solid year included significant deals such as the Redeem acquisition of Eazyfone, the Veritek Global MBO, and disposal of Elmelin. The firm’s first £100 million-plus deal, led by Ian Barton, was the sale of Swift Worldwide, with a second major deal involving TNT Post due to complete as the Deals Awards nomination deadline closed.
With strength in depth across the region, Deloitte’s Reading team has continued its strong commitment to the Thames Valley, having originated and advised on a number of high-profile deals during the period. Transactions closed included the sale of Interlaken to TDR backed Lowell Group and the sale of Bytesquared.
Grant Thornton’s strong local team had consistently sourced and completed deals throughout the year. One of the “clear leaders in the market”, according to one nomination, deals included NVM’s acquisition of Kirton Group, the Dunedin-
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backed MBO of Kee Safety, and the IntelliFlo disposal to HgCapital.
James Cowper completed 20 deals with a total value of £220m, making it a record year for the firm. Transactions included an AIM listing, acquisitions and fundraising across a range of sectors. The Eclipse Marketing sale was a standout deal.
Spectrum made its mark in 2013 with high-profile regional deals such as Virgin Wines MBO and Romans, and with a range of deals from £3m up to £110m. Spectrum is equally at home with debt advisory deals as with buyouts or private equity investments. Of its 10 deals in 2013, other headline transactions were with Mountain Warehouse, Create Healthcare, and The Training Room.
All eyes were upon the stage as Jonathan Hughes, regional sales director at Leumi ABL, announced and presented the award to the winning team – Spectrum Corporate Finance.
With nominations running into double figures, Spectrum’s CF team was described by one as “’highly professional, accessible outside of hours with the information provided of a very high quality … making Spectrum a firm we are keen to work closer with”.
Another nominator said: “Spectrum’s THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2014
delivery was truly hands on, playing a crucial role in guiding and assisting the management team through the challenges of the process, as well as delivering a great outcome.”
Later, Simon Davies MD of Spectrum said: “I am absolutely delighted. This is a fantastic achievement. We have worked really hard over the past three years to position ourselves in the Thames Valley market. We now have a very strong team across the board, able to provide a full-on advisory service to any entity.
“I don’t think any other advisory team in the Thames Valley has the range of experience, built up over the past 30 years, that we have to bring to bear on transactions, plus a quality team behind us to deliver the best advice to clients.
“We have a great pipeline of work at the moment, are pitching for several deals every week and seeing some great uptake. With the UK economy and local market really improving we are now recruiting in order to grow our already strong position. We are here to stay.”
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