Two deals completed in 24 hours by NW corporate finance team

Grant Thornton’s North West corporate finance team has signed off another strong year by completing two transactions in just 24 hours.

The team, ranked by Experian CorpFin as the UK’s most active deal-makers by volume and shortlisted in six categories of last week’s Rainmaker awards staged by TheBusinessDesk.com, specialises in advising private equity firms and entrepreneurial business owners.

Its latest deal saw it advise the shareholders of Just Trays Limited, including Maven Capital Partners on the sale of Just Trays to the Kartell Group, a transaction which generated a 2x return for Maven.

Just Trays, a niche shower trays manufacturer based in Yorkshire, has been acquired by the £60m revenue Kartell Group, which has operations in Bedford and Wigan.

The second transaction completed by the team was the recapitalisation of a North West-based wholesaler of consumer products in a deal worth more than £20m.

The latest deals take the total value of deals transacted for the year to June 30, 2019, to £250m, and the number of deals to 10.

Of these transactions seven involved private equity.

Peter Terry, partner and head of North West corporate finance advisory, said: “We have had another really good year, with activity across a wide range of sectors and deal types.

“Going into the Summer, and our new financial year, our pipeline is very strong, notwithstanding the ongoing Brexit uncertainty which impacted confidence at the start of this year as the first deadline approached.

“I believe the possibility that there could be a change of government and a potential change to Entrepreneurs’ Relief is driving activity in the market place.”

The deals done in the year include two social value deals. The sale of apprenticeships provider Estio Training to Palatine’s Impact Fund and the £50m+ Recycling Lives investment from Three Hills Capital Partners, one of the biggest social value-related investments in 2018.

Click here to see Peter Terry discuss the growing trend for social value investment.