MANAGEMENT TEAM OF THE YEAR


Sponsored by:


Winner: Innovation Group


Professional dealmakers and advisers were not directly involved in this award category. Instead, it was the performance of those directly affected by the deals – the company management teams.


Their strategic thinking, handling, achievement and subsequent integration of a recent deal within their operations, was under assessment for the three contenders for this title; Innovation Group, Lakesmere and Mortgages Made Easy.


When UK insurance claims technology company Innovation Group was bought by Carlyle Group, the US private equity firm, for almost £500 million, the deal valued Innovation at an historic price/earnings multiple of 22.9 times. As a global company, employing 3,100 people worldwide, Innovation Group's current senior management team has decades of experience in the insurance industry and elsewhere.


Lakesmere's structured management buyout saw founder Mark Davey move into the role of chairman, with six members of the management team; Mark Johnson, Matt Nicholson, David Gray, Ted McMullen, Ed McKenzie and Ronnie Mills becoming shareholders. Now in its 23rd year, Lakesmere, headquartered in Winchester, specialises in the design, engineering, manufacture and installation of the building envelope on major construction projects.


Sat Singh founded Mortgages Made Easy in 2004 and now runs the business as CEO with fellow directors Taj Kang and Andy McBride. The business is one of the UK's leading providers of broking services for mortgages and related financial products to the freelance contractors'


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2016


industry. The acquisition of Contractor Financials and the investment by Livingbridge allows for further growth.


PwC transaction services director Becky Bridgen presented the winner's award to “a South Coast success story – a global business now employing more than 3,000 people worldwide”: Innovation Group


Afterwards, Lewis Miller, group CFO, revealed that the Innovation Group management team had undertaken a number of small bolt-on acquisitions before but never anything of the scale of last year's public-to-private agreed buyout by US Carlyle Group PE firm. “It was quite a new experience for us,” Miller said with modest understatement.


As a £230m turnover plc, the company had bought businesses all over the world, but the Solent Deals Award was the first time the Innovation Group's management team, based at Solent Business Park, had won an award locally for its professional performance, Miller revealed.


The ongoing distraction of the massive deal had been one of the biggest challenges to the management team he admitted. “In taking the business private, there was an enormous demand on our time – way more than the hours in the day that we had to run the business.


“It was enormously challenging, but underneath the executive management team we have got number of a phenomenal operators both in the UK and overseas, and we relied heavily on them in making sure that business as usual continued, and they did a stellar job throughout.”


businessmag.co.uk


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