deals/finance 31


WSH acquires event caterer Searcys


Westbury Street Holdings (WSH) has acquired hospitality provider and event caterer Searcys for an undisclosed sum following months of speculation over the company’s future.


Alistair Storey, founder of Reading-based WSH, becomes Searcys chairman, with the existing management team continuing to run the business.


Searcys, which runs the restaurant at the top of the Gherkin building in London, was put on the market last November with a price tag of £25 million to £30m.


BDO was appointed to manage the sale and there was speculation that Searcys might be broken up and sold in parts. However, WSH has acquired the business in its entirety.


Managing director Chris Maddison will stay on in his role after the transition to WSH while chairman Richard Tear is understood to be taking retirement.


Founded in 1847, Searcys has 20 sites and 1,082 employees, and has an annual turnover of nearly £43m.


LEP and FSE launch £5.5m funding escalator


The Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership and The FSE Group have announced a new £5.5 million Escalator Fund aimed at early-stage high-growth-potential companies in the Enterprise M3 geographic area covered by parts of Surrey and Hampshire. The Fund will help companies access the finance they need to grow and create at least 150 jobs in the region.


This announcement follows the news that Enterprise M3 had been awarded £118m of Local Growth Fund cash from government to stimulate economic growth. These LGF funds will be matched by public and private sector money and will be aimed at supporting projects in enterprise and innovation, training, infrastructure improvements and housing.


The Enterprise M3 area consists of agile, high-growth knowledge- based businesses that have contributed to the growth of the local economy, which is currently three times the national average.


Enterprise M3, working with The FSE Group, plans to support companies which have the capacity to deliver significant growth and jobs by providing finance. This finance will be awarded to a range of businesses from those making their first sales to the more established who have found it difficult to obtain funding from more traditional sources.


Managed by The FSE Group on behalf of Enterprise M3 LEP, the £5.5m Funding Escalator is split as follows:


• £4m Expansion Loan Scheme providing between £50,000 and £200,000 to established SMEs.


• £1.5m Growth Fund providing between £50,000 and £125,000 as an equity investment to earlier stage SMEs; (equity investments must be matched with an equal amount of private investment). In addition companies wishing to apply to this fund will have access to an investment preparation process with partners VitalSix.


Both schemes are funded by the Growing Enterprise Fund, established by Enterprise M3 using money from the Government’s Growing Places Fund.


Chair of Enterprise M3 Geoff French said: “Helping our companies improve their competitiveness is vital if this area is to stay ahead of our global competitors. In spite of the improvements in the economic situation, local businesses are telling us that they are still finding it difficult to secure the funding they require to grow and expand. We want to support these key businesses and have established the Funding Escalator to ensure that they have access to the right finance so they can fulfil their potential, create jobs and stimulate the local economy.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2014


Southern Communications secures additional funding


Basingstoke-based Southern Communications, a business- to-business telecoms reseller, has raised follow-on financing through Santander’s Breakthrough programme, increasing its total credit facilities to just over £10 million. The additional facilities will be used to immediately acquire an Internet service provider and for further acquisitions over the next 18 months.


Southern Communications is a leading independent provider of telecoms and data product services to small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.


In the past two years Southern Communications has acquired three businesses – all of which have been successfully integrated. It is now one of the top telecom resellers in the UK with turnover of over £20m – with growth reportedly driven by price disruptiveness, high-quality customer service and the ability to provide customers with a full range of bespoke services.


Santander’s funding package includes £1.45m of growth capital


investment plus a significant war chest for further acquisitions, organic growth and new hires.


The loan is part of Santander’s Breakthrough programme, which aims to support fast-growth small businesses, to help them fulfil their potential. As well as funding, Breakthrough offers companies access to trade missions, business masterclasses, networking events and support in areas such as finance and marketing.


Paul Bradford, CEO at Southern Communications, said: “Accessing finance that allows you to invest in your business is hard for a company of our size. Typically investors either want to take a slice of your company, or are only offering funding to new ventures. Santander’s Breakthrough programme offers us a real alternative, allowing us to top-up what we could access through traditional bank finance, with funding based on our future success.”


Details: www.santanderbreakthrough.co.uk


New service to help fast-


growing businesses grow faster an existing outgrown or underperforming system. The system is cloud-based to remove networking and geographic issues, and securely accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection. Data is managed in the UK to globally- recognised standards.


Professional services firm PwC has developed a new accounting service My Financepartner specifically targeted at UK SMEs to help grow their businesses faster.


According to a spokesperson from PwC, My Financepartner provides the information and insight businesses need to maximise their growth potential. "It’s a professionally-supported accounting and insight solution with a scale and price point designed for the SME market."


The service offers:


• Access to PwC’s experience and expertise;


• Management information that works with your accounting system, replacing spreadsheets with a real-time, visual representation of your business performance;


• An optional scalable accounting system, replacing


www.businessmag.co.uk


My Financepartner also offers compliance needs: VAT, corporation tax and statutory accounting.


Details:


Fran Roberts (Reading) francesca.roberts@uk.pwc.com


Liz Anderton (Uxbridge) elizabeth.r.anderton@uk.pwc.com


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