41


OF THE YEAR (OVER £25m) AWARD


DEAL


SPONSORED BY UBS WEALTH MANAGEMENT WINNER Sunseeker


Left: An elated Sunseeker team. The trophy was once more presented by Jonathan Brown of UBS Wealth Management (right) Above: Sunny Thakrar


pleasant task of congratulating the winner and presenting the Deals Awards trophy.


For the third and final time, compere Durden-Smith urged the assembled peer group to carefully consider the nominations and personally judge the winner of another highly-valued Solent Deals Award.


Once again these major deals under the spotlight had involved a wide-range of talented individuals and proven professionals, many from well-known firms in the Solent, but each playing an important part within their respective deals team to bring about a successful outcome.


And, once again it was fingers on keypads for the last audience vote of the evening – 10 seconds of digital decision-making destined to end the evening on a high note, probably delivered as a shriek of joy from the winner’s table.


The four nominees for the over £25 million deal value category were:


Axell Wireless (Project Dragon)


An £85m disposal of Axell Wireless, the Chesham-based global provider of Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) and wireless solutions for the public safety and cellular markets, to Cobham plc, based at Wimborne.


Key involvements in the deal came from: Moore Blatch, Mooreland Partners.


Imagine Publishing


MBO of Imagine, one of the world’s leading multimedia publishers, based in Bournemouth.


Key involvements in the deal came from: Shoosmiths, HSBC, Rockhopper Investments.


JCC Lighting


Sale of LED lighting specialist JCC Lighting, based in Bognor, to US electrical manufacturer Leviton.


Key involvements in the deal came from: LDC, Osborne Clarke, KPMG, Business Development Asia.


Sunseeker


£300m-plus sale of Poole-headquartered boatbuilder Sunseeker to leading Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda.


Key involvements in the deal came from: Deloitte, Puji Capital, Ernst & Young, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.


Gaining the most audience votes and becoming the final winners of the 2014 Deals Awards were the advisory professionals involved in the Sunseeker deal.


Jonathan Brown, managing director of UBS Wealth Management, once again had the


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2014 www.businessmag.co.uk


Sunny Thakrar, financial director of Sunseeker, received the award and revealed that the deal had come about after the purchase of a Sunseeker Predator 108 yacht by Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest commercial property and entertainment conglomerate, and interest later shown by an investment firm (Puji Capital) at the Southampton Boat Show.


“It seems it was one of those cases where ’He liked the boat so much that he bought the company,’“ said Thakrar.


The complex cross-border deal took much longer to complete than expected, said Thakrar, as he praised the professionalism, dedication and perseverance of all the advisers and firms involved.


The deal was completed in August 2013, with the Dalian Wanda Group becoming the new majority shareholder.


The deal has allowed Sunseeker to further expand its global operations while retaining its management team, workforce and manufacturing infrastructure at its headquarters in Poole.


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