39 DEALMAKER WINNER
OF THE YEAR AWARD
SPONSORED BY THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE Stewart Lambert of James Cowper
Above: The winner – Stewart Lambert of James Cowper
Right: Lambert with Mark Durden-Smith and David Murray of sponsor The Business Magazine (right)
After dessert normal Awards activity resumed – well almost normal, except that the audience was deciding the final three awards.
As presenter Mark Durden-Smith explained, the remaining awards relied on the dealmaking practitioners attending using their skill, knowledge and experience to determine the worthy winners. Their carefully considered choice and individual votes would be recorded by keypad terminals on each table.
Nominations for this prestigious award were: Simon Davies of Spectrum Corporate Finance, Peter Jeffery of Moore Blatch, Stewart Lambert of James Cowper, and Darren Thompson of Meridian Corporate Finance.
Simon Davies and his Spectrum partners live on the south coast and the firm is a south- focused corporate finance team. Spectrum says about half its deal-flow originates in the Solent market from its advisers’ personal networks, and last year the range of deals in its portfolio was from £3 million to £115m, with deals (led by Davies) based in Alton, Southampton, Bournemouth and Blandford.
The Solent Deals Awards judges decided that ’dealmakers’ were not restricted to corporate finance advisers, hence lawyer Peter Jeffrey joined this year’s shortlist. Jeffery led the team that advised on the disposal of Axell
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2014
Wireless to Cobham plc, and worked against the clock to get the acquisition of Trinity Expert Systems to Liberata (UK) completed in just four days.
Stewart Lambert’s year has involved completing transactions with a value of more than £100m. These included the MBI of Andante Travels, a key local deal in 2013; raising finance for Chandlers Ford-based Roughton Group; the acquisition of ET Travel by The Appointment Group; and the partial disposal of IntelliFlo to Hg Capital. Since joining James Cowper from Tenon, Lambert has helped raise James Cowper’s profile in the local corporate finance arena.
As well as running Meridian Growth Capital, Darren Thompson acted during the award assessment period on seven transactions including a number of high-profile deals such as the cross-border sale of Ringwood- based Coolmation to private equity-backed Swegon; and the sale of Beovax Computer Solutions to Newbury-based Pervasive Networks. One bank wrote: “Darren simply makes deals happen.“
David Murray, founder and managing director of The Business Magazine, stood ready to present the Dealmaker of the Year trophy. Music fanfared as the winner’s name flashed up on large stage-screens – Stewart Lambert.
www.businessmag.co.uk
Afterwards, the proud winner commented: “I work with a great team and it’s just brilliant to be recognised in the local community for the fantastic year we’ve had, doing more Solent deals than ever before.“
So, how do you become Dealmaker of the Year?
Lambert revealed: “You just have to stay very, very active, keep talking to people. To a certain extent you do rely on people introducing you to new contacts, but it’s also about the recognition that you have been out there, doing good deals for people. You don’t need a big brand, because people buy you.“
While James Cowper does have a south- coast office, Lambert, who lives in Winchester, says he has spent much of the past 15-16 years working remotely and flexibly across the Solent region.
“Today much of my business network is here. And, I always use local advisers when the deals are down here, because the Solent area is very well-blessed with high-quality lawyers and due diligence providers.“
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