2019 Rainmaker Awards shortlist revealed
The shortlist for the 2019 North West Rainmaker Awards has been revealed, highlighting the most significant deals and successful teams in the region’s corporate finance community.
35 senior people from across the community met yesterday to draw up the shortlists. The winners will now be chosen by votes from a much larger group, on a one vote per firm basis.
The awards are supported by Michael Page and take place on Thursday, June 20 at Hilton Manchester Deansgate.
It is the fifth year of the Rainmaker Awards, which celebrates the deals, teams and individuals that have had the biggest impact in the last 12 months.
There are two new awards in 2019 – private company deal of the year, which the judges added after they recognised there was a gap, and changemaker of the year, which showcases the individuals who are leading on improving diversity and inclusion within the deals community.
Alex Turner, joint managing director of TheBusinessDesk.com, said: “It was a really good judging session, with lots of debate and some disagreements, that has resulted in a shortlist that captures the breadth as well as strength of the North West’s corporate finance sector.
“We are now looking forward to celebrating the community when we reveal the winners at the awards dinner on June 20.”
The judges considered deals that happened between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. The deals needed to involve a company based in the North West.
We were kindly assisted by Experian who provided the deals information, which was added to by the judges to ensure all of the relevant deals were considered.
Be part of our Rainmaker Awards – click here to book your tickets.
Voting codes will be sent out on Monday. If you have any questions about the awards, please contact events@thebusinessdesk.com.
NORTH WEST RAINMAKER AWARDS 2019 SHORTLIST
SMALL CAP (UP TO £15M) DEAL OF THE YEAR
• Carrs Food Group (now rebranded as St Pierre Groupe) received £6.7m from BGF and Lloyds Bank
Financial: Grant Thornton
Legal: Pinsent Masons, Knights
• Epistem 2, a management buy-out vehicle led by Dr Catherine Booth, acquired the contract research and pharmacogenomics divisions of Genedrive. Foresight Group provided funding of £2m in support of the transaction.
Financial: Dow Schofield Watts, Bamburgh Capital, Northridge Advisory, Peel Hunt, RPL
Legal: Addleshaw Goddard, Shoosmiths, Knights
• Palatine Private Equity’s Impact Fund invested in Estio Training, an IT apprenticeship provider
Financial: Grant Thornton
Legal: Ward Hadaway, Addleshaw Goddard
• Law firm Knights acquired Manchester-based Turner Parkinson
Financial: RSM
• Miss Group Holdings, a Manchester-based provider of web hosting services, received funding of £6.4m from BGF
Financial: Sedulo
Legal: Squire Patton Boggs, Knights
PRIVATE COMPANY DEAL OF THE YEAR
• Northedge-backed Cloud Technology Solutions merged with Qlouder in a £20m deal that created the largest dedicated Google Cloud practice in Europe.
Financial: GCA Altium, Deloitte
Legal: Squire Patton Boggs
• The sale of Digital ID Group, the UK’s leading provider of ID system products, to US-based BarcodesInc
Financial: Convex
Legal: Freeman Fisher, Paul Hastings
• ECI Partners bought outsourced communications firm Moneypenny
Financial: GCA Altium, EY
Legal: DLA Piper, Squire Patton Boggs
• Three Hills Capital Partners has taken a 21% stake in Recycling Lives, a leading UK recycling and waste management solutions provider.
Financial: Grant Thornton
Legal: CMS, Pinsent Masons
• Inflexion took a 30% stake in UKFast, which valued the technology company at £405m.
Financial: GCA Altium, Deloitte, EY
Legal: Addleshaw Goddard, CMS
INTERNATIONAL DEAL OF THE YEAR
• The world’s largest wound care company, Acelity LP, based in America, acquired Knutsford-based Crawford Healthcare
Financial: KPMG
Legal: DLA Piper
• EG Group bought Woolworths Group’s network of 540 Australian petrol station sites for £959m
Financial: Barclays Bank, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley
Legal: Allen & Overy, Kirkland & Ellis
• Fishawack, the global medical communications and marketing organisation acquired US-based healthcare communications agency Dudnyk
Financial: KPMG, Clearwater International, GP Bullhound
Legal: Addleshaw Goddard
• GB Group acquired IDology Inc, Atlanta, Georgia, provider of cloud-based identity and age verification solutions, for £232m
Financial: Croft & Bender, Peel Hunt, William Blair & Co.
Legal: Squire Patton Boggs, Morris Manning & Martin, Brabners, DAC Beachcroft.
• South African construction group Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon acquired a 60% stake in Russells, which provides contracting services on design, installation and project management capabilities
Financial: PwC
Legal: Eversheds Sutherland, Addleshaw Goddard
PRIVATE EQUITY EXIT OF THE YEAR
• The sale of Travel Counsellors by shareholders including Equistone Partners Europe and management to Vitruvian Partners.
Financial: Rothschild, GCA Altium, Deloitte
Legal: Pinsent Masons
• Foresight Group exited facilities management provider Thermotech, selling the Stockport company to Atalian Servest Group.
Financial: Grant Thornton
Legal: Gateley
• Electrocomponents Oxford acquired IESA, a Warrington provider of value-added outsourcing services to industrial customers, in an £88m deal. The seller was Gresham Private Equity.
Financial: GCA Altium
Legal: gunnercooke
• Snack manufacturer Calbee bought Seabrook Crisps, providing an exit for LDC.
Financial: KPMG, Houlihan Lokey, Spayne Lindsay
Legal: Addleshaw Goddard, Walker Morris
• Secondary buy-out led by LDC of price comparison website Love Energy Savings.com from NVM Private Equity in a £25m deal.
Financial: EY, KPMG
Legal: Pinsent Masons, DWF
PUBLIC MARKETS DEAL OF THE YEAR
• AJ Bell Holdings floated on the London Stock Exchange, valued at £675m
Financial: Numis Securities
Legal: Pinsent Masons, Addleshaw Goddard
• Blue Prism, which develops a software tool that enables large companies to automate, raised £100m through a share placing.
Financial: Investec Bank
Legal: Olswang, Osborne Clarke
• DWF floated on the London Stock Exchange, valued at £366m
Financial: Zeus Capital, Deloitte, Jefferies International,
Stifel Nicolaus
Legal: Allen & Overy
• GB Group acquired IDology Inc, Atlanta, Georgia, provider of cloud-based identity and age verification solutions, for £232m
Financial: Croft & Bender, Peel Hunt, William Blair & Co.
Legal: Squire Patton Boggs, Morris Manning & Martin, Brabners, DAC Beachcroft.
• JD Sports Fashion’s takeover offer for Footasylum Plc for £90m
Financial: GCA Altium, Rothschild
Legal: Addleshaw Goddard, Eversheds Sutherland
M&A DEAL OF THE YEAR
• Private investment firm CorpAcq acquired a majority stake in Cotton Traders Holdings
Financial: Grant Thornton
Legal: Beyond Corporate, Nexus
• Cox & Kings sold its travel education division to Midlothian Capital Partners for £488m
Financial: RW Baird
Legal: Eversheds Sutherland, Slaughter & May
• The world’s largest wound care company, Acelity LP, based in America, acquired Knutsford-based Crawford Healthcare
Financial: KPMG
Legal: DLA Piper
• Inspired Energy acquired financial consultancy Inprova Finance from Inprova Group for £19.5m
Financial: Dow Schofield Watts, Grant Thornton, Peel Hunt, Shore Capital Group
Legal: DAC Beachcroft, Gateley
• ECI Partners bought outsourced communications firm Moneypenny
Financial: GCA Altium, EY
Legal: DLA Piper, Squire Patton Boggs
• The Hut Group made three acquisitions in four months, buying cosmetics manufacturer Acheson & Acheson, translation services provider Language Connect International, and eye cosmetics company Eyeko.
Financial: Deloitte, EY, Baylor Klein
Legal: Travers Smith, Gowling WLG, Addleshaw Goddard
LEGAL TEAM OF THE YEAR
• Addleshaw Goddard
• DLA Piper
• DWF
• Pinsent Masons
• Squire Patton Boggs
CORPORATE FINANCE TEAM OF THE YEAR
• Clearwater International
• Dow Schofield Watts
• GCA Altium
• Grant Thornton
• KPMG
VC/PRIVATE EQUITY TEAM OF THE YEAR
• BGF
• Equistone
• Foresight
• Inflexion
• LDC
• NorthEdge
FUNDER OF THE YEAR, sponsored by A2E
• Greater Manchester Loan Fund
• HSBC
• Natwest
• Tosca Debt Capital
• Yorkshire Bank (CYBG)
CHANGEMAKER OF THE YEAR
• Jonathan Boyers, KPMG
• Darryl Cooke, gunnercooke
• Beth Houghton, Palatine Private Equity
• Karen Johnson, Barclays
• Lisa Stavropoulos, DWF
YOUNG RAINMAKER OF THE YEAR
• Peter Barkley, Dow Schofield Watts
• Rhys Davenport, BGF
• Mike Malone, Natwest
• Jamie Peel, Zeus
• Matt Pomroy, Foresight
RAINMAKER OF THE YEAR
• Phil Adams, GCA Altium
• Beth Houghton, Palatine Private Equity
• Simon Lord, GCA Altium
• Pete Terry, Grant Thornton
• Carl Wormald, Inflexion
