Begbies Traynor acquires London firm for £18m

Begbies Traynor has acquired a London-based property finance brokerage in a deal worth up to £18m.

The business recovery group said the deal to buy Axiom Consulting & Investments and Ellayaan which together trade as Mantra Capital, will complement the group’s other advisory and transactional services.

Begbies Traynor will pay Mantra, an FCA-regulated finance and insurance brokerage, an initial consideration of £4.5m comprised of £4m in cash from the group’s existing facilities and the issue of 352,361 new ordinary shares.

There is also a potential earn out of up to an additional £13.5m (in a mix of cash and shares) subject to delivering growth in profits over the next four years.

Mantra’s team of 23 people have ‘significant expertise’ across both commercial and residential real estate lending, providing property investment and development finance, finance for trading businesses and residential mortgages. In addition, they provide insurance brokerage services to their commercial clients.

In its financial year ending 31 December 2021, Mantra achieved revenues of £4.2m and normalised pre-tax profits of £1.2m.

Mantra together with MAF Finance Group, which Begbies Traynor acquired in May 2021, will form BTG Funding Solutions, a finance brokerage serving a range of sectors, including real estate, construction, engineering and manufacturing, haulage, healthcare, agriculture, renewables and vehicles.

The combined team of 70 employees with an enhanced national coverage, generated annual fee income of c.£8m and arranged finance in excess of £800m for clients over the last 12 months.

Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor, said: “The acquisition of Mantra is in line with our growth strategy to complement and expand our services and regional coverage, whilst enabling us to form a national finance business serving a wide range of sectors.

“We believe access to finance will be critical as the economy addresses its current challenges. BTG Funding Solutions will be a major addition to the support and advice we can provide, whilst enhancing our long-term organic growth prospects.”

The Manchester corporate team of Hill Dickinson acted as legal adviser to Begbies on the deal.