BANK OF THE YEAR Sponsored by:
Winner: RBS/NatWest
Deals don‘t get very far without adequate funding and amenable professional funders.
The much-prized ‘Bank of the Year‘ title was contested by four very well-known ‘high street‘ names:
• HSBC • Lloyds • RBS/NatWest • Santander
HSBC had held sway over this title within the Solent and Thames Valley regions for five successive years. Would they make it ‘six of the best‘?
HSBC‘s ‘very active year‘ included funding of the acquisition of Lymington Precision Engineering; the refinancing with other banks of Nuffield Health; the funding of Matchtech Group‘s acquisition of Networkers International; refinancing of Wincanton plc; support for Babcock‘s acquisition of Avincis Group; and the successful refinancing and rebanking of Chandlers Ford-based Selwood.
Lloyds‘ corporate banking office in Southampton funded the growth plans of Ringwood-based Raymond Brown Group, and the MBO of construction specialist S Walsh & Sons. It also funded the part-sale and investment of Hamble Yacht Services, Hamble Property Holdings and Ancasta Group.
The only bank with dedicated structured finance and financial sponsorship teams based and working exclusively in the Solent region, RBS/NatWest has had a strong year, with Mark Ward and Ian Burroughs handling a mixed portfolio of deals, including the MBO of Dyer & Butler, MBO of Kondor, the Stanley Gibbons‘ acquisition of Mallet plc and the MBO of Farrow & Ball. Total debt associated with qualifying deals in the nomination period was well in excess of £1 billion.
The Southampton office of Santander has had another stand-out year, including refinancing fast-growing Brymor, and lending over £200 million to businesses across the region.
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Santander continues to grow market share across the South Coast, especially in the area of growth funding for SMEs. The judges felt that “... this year‘s outstanding contender is a bank that funded many headline deals in the year, and is proving, according to Solent firms, currently the most responsive in the region.“
Steve Rebbettes (right), director of category sponsors BCMS Corporate, market leaders in the sale of privately-owned companies, presented the trophy to RBS/NatWest.
Mark Ward, director of structured finance spoke for RBS/ NatWest after its ‘Bank of the Year‘ accolade. Over the past four to five years, he felt the Solent banking team had worked extremely hard delivering much for its clients, without actually publicising and promoting its successful activities enough.
Being nominated for the Deals Awards had now brought that work under the spotlight, with its award-winning recognition.
“It‘s nice to be recognised by our peers and the local community this evening, but for me it‘s about the customers, and in doing the deals that we have done in recent years, we also have gained recognition in that respect.
“We are now out there in the market, having restructured the bank and become focused on costs and what the customer needs.
“Internally the bank has changed beyond all recognition; the systems, management and governance have all changed.“
RBS/NatWest had also invested in putting resource back into the front line, he highlighted, while combining corporate and commercial operations to support a full business journey across the £2m to £0.5b revenue range.
Soon, presenter Matt Forde was mentioning that desserts and coffee were on their way, and reminding everyone to fill their charity donation envelopes, before the final phase of the Deals Awards – the three top deal honours.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2015
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