Deal advisory firm reports ‘exceptional’ year

Mid-market advisory firm Clearwater International, which has an office in Nottingham, says it completed 107 deals in the last financial year with average deal value increasing by 19%.

All geographies, sectors and service lines experienced “exceptional” levels of activity, says Clearwater.

The TMT and Consumer sector teams were the most active with deal completions, closely followed by the Business Services and Industrials & Chemicals teams.

In TMT, highlights included the Danish team advising HG on its investment in IT Relation, while the Irish team advised on the cross-border merger of KN Group with Circet. Another key transaction involved the French team advising Primonial Group, for a fifth time, on its €1.6bn acquisition of a 50% interest in a healthcare real estate portfolio of 71 healthcare assets in Germany (belonging to Medical Properties Trust (REIT)), on behalf of institutional investors. These deals demonstrate Clearwater’s track record and culture of advising clients time and time again to achieve their strategic goals.

The team worked with an increased number of PE houses last year advising on 66 deals involving 42 different PE firms.

For the fifth year running the business saw a rise in transactions involving debt advisory, with the team involved in 36% of transactions. This increase, and the continued diversification of the funding universe, meant Clearwater expanded its debt team, now with 19 debt advisers across Europe. Among key deals, the German team advised Waterland Private Equity on the structuring of acquisition financing, the French team advised RemadeGroup on a €125m financing – one of the largest unitranche transactions in the market in 2018, and the UK team advised on the MBO of We are Discounts – a deal supported by debt and working capital facilities from Muzinich and Natwest.

Michael Reeves, chief executive, Clearwater International, said: “Last year was an outstanding year for Clearwater in many areas, helping a vast number of clients to achieve their strategic objectives. Clients come back to us several times for our help, knowing that in Clearwater they have an expert and trusted adviser and the team are testament to this high performance. The coming twelve months promise to be full of opportunities, and challenges, and we will continue to strive for excellence for our clients and our team.”

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