DEAL (UNDER £25M) OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by:
Winner:
Skyscape Cloud
Services
The four nominees for the category covering deals valued at under £25 million were:
Acal Enterprise Solutions
Soon the penultimate award of the evening, and another voting session, beckoned. Four Thames Valley deals were under the spotlight, following the judges assessment of the complexities involved, talents required and challenges to overcome, plus the performance of the people who guided the deals to their successful conclusions.
The four nominees were announced and then there was 10 seconds of tense decision-making by the knowledgeable sector-informed professionals in the room as once again fingers flicked keypads and individual votes were cast.
The seconds counted down on the large screen and soon the result was displayed for all to view. Gaining the most votes and becoming the winners of this 2015 under £25m ‘Deal of the Year’ title were the team involved in the Skyscape Cloud Services growth funding.
Jonathan Brown, managing director of category sponsor UBS Wealth Management, presented the Deals Awards trophy.
Phil Dawson, president of Skyscape Cloud Services, later spoke of his surprise at winning. “We only founded this business three years ago and tend to focus on what we do. Awards like this make you step back and realise that other people are recognising the things we are doing, and that we are actually doing them right.
“We started out to make a difference in the UK public sector by delivering IT services through cloud technologies, and we have now done that and gained a significant market share.” Skyscape is now growing at 10-15% per month, Dawson revealed, with its technology bringing economies of scale, cost reductions, automation and agility to government clients such as HMRC.
BGF invested in Skyscape about a year ago. “It was important for us to get the right institutional investor that understood the public sector. BGF’s provenance in that was very important. They understood our model, what we are trying to achieve, and have been very supportive ever since.”
The Skyscape management team was aware of transactional problems that can occur, said Dawson, but the professional advisers involved were plainly in command of the deal process and it became “a relatively simple transaction”.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2015
Deal type: Management buyout. HMT advised NVM Private Equity on the MBO of IT inventory management specialist Acal, now trading as Agilitas IT Solutions.
Deal value: £6.4m.
Key involvements in the deal came from: HMT, NVM, Baker Tilly, Continuum, Armstrong, Wragge Lawrence Graham.
Cooper Callas Deal type: Management buyin. HMT advised management of Coopers Distribution on acquisition of Cooper Callas, with MBI team of Philip Carr and Malcolm Thomson backed by Percipient, Leumi and Santander.
Deal value: Undisclosed.
Key involvements in the deal came from: HMT, Leumi ABL, BCMS, Santander, Percipient Capital, Shoosmiths, James Cowper, Clarke Willmott, Stuart Hodge, Boyes Turner, DMH Stallard.
Connect Communications
Deal type: Management buyout. LDC supported the MBO of Connect Communications, an expert in unified communications and call-centre technology services. Company renamed Connect Managed Services.
Deal value: Undisclosed.
Key involvements in the deal came from: LDC, Shoosmiths, Succession Corporate Finance, Steve Bartlett CF, Transcend. Skyscape Cloud Services
Deal type: Growth funding. The Business Growth Fund invested £4m to drive accelerated growth in this Farnborough-based cloud company, with Barclays adding £4m.
Deal value: £8m.
Key involvements in the deal came from: Business Growth Fund, Barclays, Osborne Clarke, Shoosmiths, Grant Thornton, Simmons & Simmons.
www.businessmag.co.uk
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