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CORPORATE FINANCE TEAM OF THE YEAR


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Winner: Grant Thornton


Andrew Thomson of HMT had already claimed the ‘2015 Corporate Finance Adviser of the Year’ title, and now HMT found itself pitting its overall 2014 performance against the competition of four other title contenders: Deloitte, Grant Thornton, James Cowper Kreston, and Spectrum Corporate Finance.


The corporate finance team at Deloitte, led by Mark Allen, was described in the nominations as ‘one of the most visible and reliable CF teams in the Thames Valley and south’. A key deal in 2014 was the £80 million sale of Updata Infrastructure to Capita. Others included the sale of Kondor to HIG, and LDC’s sale of Camberley-based Vysionics to Jenoptik AG in Germany.


During the nomination period, Grant Thornton’s CF team completed 23 transactions, 10 deals by the advisory team and the rest by the DD team. The Livingston and Rolling Luggage disposals and the Gamma flotation were prominent, but there were many other MBOs, sales and acquisitions in a packed programme.


HMT’s portfolio of 25 deals in the qualifying period included the MBI of Cooper Callas, the disposal of Friarwood, MBO of EPI Group, Redeem fundraise and acquisitions, and MBO of Acal. The firm now has arguably ‘the largest and most active CF team in the Thames Valley’.


The seven-strong CF team at James Cowper Kreston, led by Nick Rogers, completed 19 deals with an aggregate value of over £100m including AIM IPOs and company disposals. The firm was shortlisted for CF Team of the Year in the British Accountancy Awards and came second at the awards ceremony.


The team of entrepreneurial advisory partners at Spectrum had another record year, with 16 deals in the qualifying period,


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including Bargate Homes, Asmodee/Esdevium, Pitmans/Lamport Bassitt, Premium Crops disposal to US, The Light Cinema acquisition, MacuVision’s disposal to Alliance Pharma, and the sale of the SIS Outside Broadcast division. The aggregate value of the activity was £440m.


Jonathan Hughes, regional sales director at Leumi ABL became the focus for 350 pairs of eyes as he announced and presented the award to Grant Thornton.


Among its Deals Award nominations, Grant Thornton’s local CF team was described as “an excellent blend of experience, enthusiasm, sector expertise, hard work and support, who always work effectively to get transactions completed – a pleasure to work with”.


Grant Thornton’s lead CF partner Duncan Lamb later explained his team’s success: “Frankly it’s hard yards, research and focus on sector, but very much about having an internal focus on external clients where we can add value.”


Generating deals and working very closely with the local adviser community has also been a key focus. “A third of our deals are off-market generated rather than process led, and that brings a real breadth to the opportunities we are handling.


“This has worked well for us in tough markets; in a buoyant market like now, it really shows that we have a real core developing from deals we are finding ourselves, as well as those that are client-led or brought to us by intermediaries.”


Grant Thornton has also added resource to its CF team: “We see the market as very positive, though there’s a degree of Election caution, and our order-book is already better now and looking forward, than it was in the past 12 months.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2015


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