DUE DILIGENCE TEAM OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by:
Winner: PwC
There were three quality finalists with three corporate initials each, for this award; BDO, PwC and RSM.
PwC had been pipped in a ‘two-horse' race for this award last year by Baker Tilly and faced a similar fate this year. Why? Baker Tilly adopted new global branding during 2015 and became RSM – same ‘horse', different colours. Plus there was a new challenge in the parade ring with the BDO colours on show.
BDO has had a strong year for due diligence work, with deals valued at circa £350 million in the qualifying period. With Southampton- based expertise in healthcare, travel and leisure, and motor retail, deals ranged from cross-border transactions to complex assignments. One standout deal was Specialist Tours to Kings Park Capital.
PwC's Southampton team worked on the 23.5 Degrees franchise deal; the Babcock acquisition of Defence Support Group; the INEOS purchase of 12 North Sea gas fields; the Cega Group MBO; and a host of other deals, including Innovation Group, New Look and CTC Aviation. In total, the DD team worked on more than 20 transactions in the qualifying period.
RSM's Southampton-based transaction services team worked on a succession of high-profile, high-value transactions throughout the course of the year. These included the MBO on ProcessFlows, LDC's investment in BOFA International, the acquisition of Contractor Financials by Mortgages Made Easy, eight acquisitions for Micheldever Tyre Services and a growth capital investment for HighQ Solutions.
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Frank Trivino, the south coast business manager of award category sponsor, The Business Magazine, opened the all-important envelope to reveal that the PwC team had raced first past the winning post.
Speaking on behalf of her award-winning team, Becky Bridgen, PwC's director in transaction services, said: “We are just so proud and delighted to win this award. It's the first time we have won it, and it means a lot to both me personally and our great deals team in Southampton. It's a testament to the hard work that the whole team has put in over the past 12 months.
“We've had some really large deals and also some really good local deals to work on and I think it's that breadth and mix of deals that we've undertaken which has made us really stand out this year.”
Due Diligence is fundamental to the investment decision, she explained. “So if we have done our job properly it should make it easier to identify whether it is a good deal or not to invest in.
“We are a specialist team, very much focused on the deal from inception through to exit.”
PwC's DD team is steadily growing – “We took on people last year and there will be more this year” – developing its depth and scope across different DD disciplines, while trying to ensure an integrated operation with its PwC tax, M&A and financial colleagues, Bridgen explained.
The quality of the local market and business community, she believes, helped drive much greater Solent deals activity throughout last year. “The South Coast has very good opportunities for investment with a lot of really good companies, and privately-owned businesses looking for exit.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2016
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