Tipper is crowned Rainmaker of the Year

PALATINE Private Equity managing partner Gary Tipper has been crowned the ultimate “deals king” after being voted Rainmaker of the Year at a glitzy awards ceremony last night.

Before hundreds of glitterati from the North West’s corporate finance community at Manchester’s Hilton Hotel, Tipper emerged the winner from a shortlist also including Nick Cowles and Richard Hughes, both of Zeus Capital.

In the online poll for the winner of TheBusinessDesk.com event – carried in conjunction with partner Out There Events – Tipper was the clear leader among his peers.

The avid Manchester City fan, who has just returned from Euro 2016 in France where he watched the ill-fated England team’s campaign, is one of the founding partners of Palatine and has more than 20 years’ private equity experience.

After receiving his award, Tipper said that the secondary buyout of Wealth at Work for Equistone for £50m, an exit by Palatine, giving a 3.5x return was the deal, which stood out.

“It was the transaction which gave me and my excellent team at Palantine the most satisfaction,” he told Joanne Birtwistle, the editor of TheBusinessDesk in the North West.

“It is an honour to receive the award ahead of some outstanding deal makers in the region, and I am backed by a great team, who I wholeheartedly thank.”

Other stand-out deals for Manchester-based Palatine during the year included private medical insurance consolidator Chase Templeton’s acquisition of Wellbeing health Insurance, also headquartered in the city.

Palatine also backed the secondary buyout of holiday park group Verdant Leisure, which operates four holiday parks in southern Scotland, and the North East of England.

Another highlight was the £34.8m sale of IT services business Selection to AIM-listed Castle Street Investments, exiting the business after it backed a £15m management buyout in 2011.

Winners in other categories were as follows:

Legal Team of the Year – Addleshaw Goddard (other nominees DLA Piper, DWF LLP, Eversheds, Gateley LLP, Squire Patton Boggs)

Corporate Finance Team of the Year sponsored by Raymond James – Zeus Capital (other nominees BDO, Deloitte, Investec, PwC, Rothschild)

Venture Capital/Private Equity Team of the Year – ECI Partners (other nominees Business Growth Fund, Inflexion, LDC, Palatine Private Equity, Seneca)

Funder of the Year sponsored by CLB Coopers – Lloyds Banking Group (other nominees Barclays, HSBC, RBS/NatWest, Santander)

Prolific Team of the Year – Addleshaw Goddard (other nominees BDO, Brabners, Dow Schofield Watts, DWF LLP, Gateley LLP, RSM)

Public Markets Deal of the Year – the reverse takeover by Conviviality, trading as Bargain Booze, of Matthew Clark for £198.4m involving Rothschild, Zeus, DLA Piper and Eversheds (other nominees IPO of On the Beach which raised £96m leading to an initial market capilisation of £240m by PwC, NCC Group’s acquisition of Fox-IT Holding BV for £93.8m funded by a share placing which raised £126.3m by Rickett Mitchell and Eversheds

Private Equity Exit of the Year sponsored by Axon Moore – secondary buy-out of Citation from ECI Partners for £185m, led by HG Capital. ECI generated a multiple of 5.4x money with an IRR of 73% in the deal involving DC Advisory, Deloitte, PwC, Rothschild and Addleshaw Goddard (other nominees acquisition of Bifold by Rotork Pld for £125m providing an exit for LDC involving Altium and Addleshaw Goddard, and the secondary buyout of Wealth at Work by Equistone for £50m, an exit by Palatine Private equity giving a 3.5x return, also involving Deloitte, KPMG and DWF)

International Deal of the Year – The purchase of architect firm BDP Holdings by Japan’s Nippon Koei Co Ltd for £102.2m in a deal orchestrated by KPMG and Squire Patton Boggs (other nomineess Pentair’s acquisition of US firm ERICO International Company for £1.2bn by Eversheds, and NCC Group’s acquisition of Dutch cyber security firm Fox-IT Holding BV for £93.8m involving Rickitt Mitchell, Peel Hunt and Eversheds)

Small Cap Deal of the Year – IPO of drug developer Evgen Pharma Plc which raised £7m and gave the company an initial market capitalization of £27m involving Enterprise Ventures (other nominees drug developer Redx Pharma Plc’s share placing on AIM to raise £10m involving Acceleris Capital and DWF, secondary buy-out led by NVM Private Equity of Love Energy Savings.com Ltd for £4.5m giving an exit for Greater Manchester Loand Fund, managed by Maven Capital Parnters, involving Baker Tilly, Signia Coprorate Finance, JMW, Shoosmiths and TLT, Endless’ acquisition of cake manufacturer Bright Blue Foods Ltd for £5m in a deal involving EY, Deloitte, Addleshaw Goddar, DWF, Mills & Reeve, Pinsent Masons and Squire Patton Boggs)

M&A Deal of the Year – Euro Garages’ investment deal of £1.3bn with TDR Capital for a minority stake, involving Rothschild and Eversheds (other nominees acquisition of Bifold by Rotork Plc for £125m providing an exit for LDC, involving Altium and Addleshaw Goddard, pet food maker MPM Products Ltd sells a majority stake to ECI Partners for £50m, involving KPMG, PwC, Addleshaw Goddar, Gordons, Squire Patton Boggs, MBO led by RooGreen Ventures of Total Fitness Ltd. NorthEdge Capital supported the transaction with £11.5m taking an undisclosed majority stake in a deal involving Deloitte, KPMG, Mazars, DLA Piper, DWF and Gunnercooke).

Rising Star of the Year – Dominic Orsini of Altium (other nominees Phil Frame, NorthEdge, Andrew Green, Addleshaw Goddard, Kieran Lawton, Palatine Private Equity and Tom Wildig, Palatine Private Equity).

Watch out for our Rainmaker Awards email – with full details of the winners and the deals behind them, plus more gallery pictures – later today.

 

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