Maiden deal for Johnson’s Tian Ma

PAUL Johnson and Andy Bate’s Tian Ma Global Investments has sold its first business, a wholesaler called Clearco Specialists.

The pair set up the business in St Helens last year through Tian Ma and have sold it to Stoke-on-Trent-based Sutton Venture Group for an undisclosed amount.

They said Clearco achieved sales of £1m and built a client base of around 100 retailers in its first year.

Mr Johnson was international managing director at private equity house LDC and Mr Bate was a director at Barclays. Dave Wilson formerly of KPMG Corporate Finance and McInnes Corporate Finance joined the firm in 2012 to head up its corporate finance business.

Mr Johnson said: “Clearco is a great example of exactly why we established Tian Ma – we set out to provide funding and advisory to a full range of businesses – from management teams with just a vision, through to companies wishing to enter Asia.

“The size of the business doesn’t matter, it’s all about finding and working with the right management teams. Clearco has grown rapidly in its first year and will be in the right hands to take it to its next stage of growth.”

Rob Sutton, chairman of Sutton Venture Group, said: “Paul, Andy and the team have done an excellent job in taking Clearco from a start-up company into an premier supplier to major retailers in a short period of time and SVG provides the infrastructure and management team to take the business to the next level.”