The Rainmaker Awards shortlist revealed

THE headline-grabbing North West deals and the corporate financiers, lawyers and funders behind them, have been shortlisted for The Rainmaker Awards 2015.

Reflecting the Co-operative Group’s turbulent last year, two of its disposals – the £620m sale of its pharmacy business to Bestway – and the sale of its Sunwin arm to US firm Cardtronics, are featured on the shortlist, along with the take-private of North West telecoms firm Daisy Group and the £1bn+ reverse takeover of British Car Auctions.

There will be four team awards, five for deals and one individual honour, that of Rainmaker of the Year – the outstanding professional in the North West community, who has been at the heart of significant activity during the last year.

There are four names on the list for the prestigious Rainmaker title – Altium’s chief executive Phil Adams, Steve O’Hare of private equity firm Equistone, Andy Thomas of Rothschild, and the 2014 winner,  Richard Hughes of Zeus Capital.

The shortlist was created by selected members of the corporate finance community, reflecting the democratic and credible nature of The Rainmaker Awards.

The winners will now be chosen, on a one firm, one vote basis, by more than 80 professional firms, who will vote online in the coming weeks. The Winners will be announced at a dinner at the Hilton Hotel, Manchester on June 18.

The Rainmaker Awards, a joint venture between TheBusinessDesk.com and Out There Events, are sponsored by law firm Mills & Reeve and financial recruiter Watson Moore.

Voting will go live on the website next week across 10 categories. The shortlist is:

Legal Team of the Year:

Addleshaw Goddard
DWF
Eversheds

Corporate Finance Team of the Year
:

Altium
Rothschild
Zeus Capital

VC/Private Equity Team of the Year:

Equistone Partners Europe

LDC

NorthEdge Capital

Palatine Private Equity

Funder of the Year

HSBC

Lloyds Banking Group

PNC Business Credit

Public Markets Deal of the Year:  NW advisers in brackets

Reverse takeover of British Car Auctions (Zeus Capital, Addleshaw Goddard)

Take private of Daisy Group (EY, Eversheds)

Acqusition of Accumuli by NCC Group (Rickitt Mitchell, Eversheds)

Private Equity Exit Deal of the Year:

Secondary Buyout of Metronet by Living Bridge. Exit by LDC. (Altium ; PwC; Gateley; Pinsent Masons)

Sale of Hallmark Hotels by Palatine Private Equity and Bridgepoint for £75m (KPMG; Shoosmiths)

Equistone exits Scottish-based oil and gas consultancy PD&MS with sale to Inflexion, securing a 2.9x return (Deloitte, Pinsent Masons, Eversheds)

International Deal of the Year:

Acquisition, for up to £94m, of Haydock based Aimia Foods by Cott Corp of Canada. (KPMG, Squire Patton Boggs)

£110m sale of UK  e-cigarettes firm Nicolites to US tobacco giant Phillip Morris (Convex Capital)

£41.5m acquisition of Sunwin Services by US-based Cardtronics from The Co-operative Group  (DC Advisory, Pinsent Masons, Squire Patton Boggs)

M&A Deal of the Year:

£620m sale of The Co-operative Pharmacy to Bestway (Rothschild, Addleshaw Goddard, KPMG, EY);

Equistone leads buyout of Travel Counsellors (Rothschild, Deloitte, PwC; Addleshaw Goddard; Pinsent Masons);

Creation of Concept Life Sciences by Equistone as it acquired three businesses, Peakdale Molecular, REC and SAL for £58m. (Altium, Deloitte, PwC, Diagnostic Capital; Addleshaw Goddard, DLA Piper; Gateley, Shoosmiths)

Small-Cap deal of the Year (up to £15m)

Business Growth Fund invests £7m in Liverpool-based Hobs Reprographics  (Baker Tilly, Clearwater International, PwC. Brabners, Hill Dickinson)

£9m secondary buyout of Calyx Managed Services by MXC Capital (Rickitt Mitchell, Zeus Capital, DLA Piper, Eversheds)

£11m investment by private equity firm NorthEdge Capital in door manufacturer Solidor (Altium, KPMG, Pinsents Masons)

Rainmaker of the Year

Phil Adams – Altium Capital

Steve O’Hare – Equistone Partners Europe

Andrew Thomas – Rothschild

Richard Hughes – Zeus Capital

Voting will open shortly. Many firms are already on the voting panel, but if you would like to be included, please email chris.barry@thebusinessdesk.com To book tickets for the dinner on June 18, please email:  catherine@outthereevents.com
For sponsorship inquiries please call Alan Townley or Damian Walsh on 0161 238 4922.

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