Deal to sell architect to Far East firm wins big award
THE agreement to sell architect firm BDP Holdings to Japan’s Nippon Koi Co Ltd for £102.2m brokered by KPMG and Squire Patton Boggs landed the International Deal of the Year Award at the Rainmakers Awards.
The gong was for the advisers who have worked on a high value strategically important transaction involving a non-UK purchaser or vendor.
Receiving the award, head of corporate finance at KPMG Jonathan Boyers said BDP had come through a difficult trading period and through a “complex restructuring” and was in the ascendancy at the time of the deal.
He said: “We knew that Nippon was looking for a strategic acquisition and would fit BDP’s profile, so we introduced the two companies and when they realized the cultural fit and strategic fit was right, it was a marriage made in heaven. The price achieved for that was too good to be true.”
Referring to the post-Brexit vote uncertainty, Boyers went on: “We’ve got a great pipeline, we’re looking at what’s been affected at the moment.
“Most of things we’ve seen so far will be fine. I think it’s a time for calm heads. Over the next two to three months, things will become clearer, but we’re still being bullish.”
Other international deals in contention were Pentair’s acquisition of US firm ERICO International Company for £1.2bn (Eversheds); Dechra Pharmaceuticals acquisition of US firm Putney Inc, a developer of pharmeceutical products for pets for £140.6m (Investec) and NCC Group’s acquistion of Dutch cyber security firm Fox-IT Holding BV for £93.8m (Rickitt Mitchell, Peel Hunt, Eversheds).
Another transaction to come under the spotlight was the which saw TDR Capital, owner of European Forecourt Retail Group take a minority stake in Lancashire-based Euro Garages in a deal valued at about £1.3bn.
It won the M&A Deal of the Year category with Eversheds corporate lawyer Danny Hall stepping forward to take the plaudits.
He said: “Euro Garages was the right partner because it was prepared to pay a large amount of money. They also have 1,500 forecourts across Europe that we negotiated a deal to buy very cheaply.”
And he said that the long term plan is to Euro Garages to merge with European Forecourt Retail, already owned by TDR.
Other deals shortlisted included the acquisition of Bifold by Rotork Plc for £125m, providing an exit for LDC, negotiated by Altium and Addleshaw Goddard; pet food maker PMP Products selling a majority stake to ECI Parnters for £50m (involving KPMG, PwC, Addlewhaw Goddar, Gordons and Squire Patton Boggs); and an MBO led by RooGreen Ventures of Total Fitness Ltd, supports by NorthEdge Capital with £11.5m, taking an undisclosed minority stake (involving Deloitte, KPMG, Mazars, DLA Piper, DWF and Gunnercooke).
