Investment bank advises on £600m-worth of deals in four months

Independent investment bank Zeus Capital has advised on eight transactions across both public and private markets since June 2019, with a gross value of around £600m.

The Manchester-based firm has been particularly active in the consumer market, working with a number of disruptive, technology-enabled businesses.

In August, Zeus acted as sole financial adviser to Manchester-based retail giant, boohoo.com, on its acquisition of two iconic British brands, Karen Millen and Coast. The deal saw boohoo purchase the online operations and intellectual property rights of the two companies.

Zeus Capital also acted as financial adviser to Gousto, the UK’s leading supplier of subscription meal kits, on its £30m private placement.

Founded in 2012, the company provides subscribers with 50 different recipe kit boxes which include fresh ingredients and instructions.

Gousto has grown sales by 70% in the past year, delivering an average of 2.5 million meals each month.

The firm also acted for Spectre Holdings, a business owned by Phillip Day, on its acquisition of listed retailer Bonmarche.

Zeus Capital advised the buyer on the deal, which now owns 93% of shares.

The firm also acted as joint bookrunner to Merian Chrysalis Investment on its £175m share placing – well above the £100m target initially set.

The firm has supported Merian on several fundraises and investments since inception, with the specialist fund actively targeting transactions in disruptive private businesses. Recent deals include high-profile companies such The Hut Group, Transfer Wise and Secret Escapes.

Most recently, the firm advised independent video game company Catalis on its £90m sale to NorthEdge Capital and existing investors Vespa Capital.

In a highly complex transaction the firm provided lead advisory and Rule 3 advice to Catalis, with the deal enabling the business to continue its global expansion and support its development pipeline.

Alongside this the firm’s debt advisory team has been extremely active since its creation last year, with 11 deals worth a total of £550m completed in the past 11 months.

In June the team assisted the iconic Japanese food brand Yo! Sushi, a portfolio company of Mayfair Equity Partners, on its acquisition of US-based Snowfox.

The merger of the two entities has led to the formation of the world’s largest sushi company outside Japan, with $425m of sales across the expanded group.

Zeus Capital is an adviser to small and mid-cap private and public companies. Since 2013, the firm has advised on 128 transactions raising a total of £5.9bn, including high profile listings for the likes of Purplebricks, boohoo.com and DWF.

Tremayne Ducker, head of corporate finance at Zeus Capital, said: “Our strong performance over the last four months demonstrates the breadth of our offering, across both public and private equity markets, as well as debt advisory.

“There continues to be strong investor demand for businesses with disruptive models and high growth, but also clients targeting opportunistic acquisitions, driven by a slowdown in certain sectors.

“Our pipeline suggests that there will continue to be a real mix of deals coming through, across a wide range of sectors. It also suggests that the acquisition of public companies is likely to be a key theme over coming months.”