The shortlist for this year’s North West Rainmaker awards, celebrating the corporate finance individuals and teams responsible for the top deals of the year, can now be revealed.

Finance professionals from 40 firms gathered yesterday to select the shortlist from the individuals and teams responsible for arranging more than 600 deals, mergers and acquisitions over the 12 months to the end of March.

North West Rainmakers 2023 is sponsored by Aquis, Michael Page, Gilbanks, Hall Brown, Vertu Motors, and Experian. Voting to choose the finalists is now open on a one firm, one vote basis.

The awards will be presented at a casual dress summer party at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, on June 15 – you can find out more on the Rainmakers website and book your tickets here.

2023 Shortlist

Teams

Legal

Addleshaw Goddard

DLA Piper

DWF

Gateley

Hill Dickinson

Napthens Solicitors

Squire Patton Boggs

Corporate Finance

Clearwater International

Cowgills

Grant Thornton

Houlihan Lokey

KPMG

MHA Moore and Smalley

VC/Private Equity

BGF

Foresight

LDC

Maven

Palatine Private Equity

YFM

Funder

HSBC

Praetura

Santander UK

Shawbrook

TDC

ThinCats

Transaction Services

BDO

Cortus Advisory

Dow Schofield Watts

EY

Knight Transaction Services

RSM

Deals

Small Cap (under £15m)

Nanoco Group raised £5.65m through a share placing

Maven Capital Partners acquired ProofID for £15m

Clearwater International, Maven Capital Partners

NQ64 Arcade Bars secured £2.5m in growth capital from ThinCats

Browne Jacobson, Hill Dickinson LLP, ThinCats, Montane Finance, Pierce & Co

FourNet bought IT infrastructure business C>Ways

Palatine Private Equity, Gateley, Knight CF

Fletchers Solicitors acquired medical negligence specialist Minton Morrill

Addleshaw Goddard, Clarion Solicitors, Armstrong Watson CF, Dow Schofield Watts, Sun Capital

Biorelate secured £6.5m in a Series A investment.

Craig Corporate Management , Manchester Tech Trust, Maven, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Triple Point Ventures, YFM

Space48 owner Dark Matter Commerce acquired Brave the Skies

Berwins, TLT, Cowgills, Foresight

Private Equity Exit

Sykes Cottages acquired Forest Holidays Group from existing investors Phoenix Equity Partners and LDC.

Burness Paull, Eversheds Sutherland, Hogan Lovells, Mayer Brown, Travers Smith, Clearwater International, FTI Consulting, Harris Williams & Co, Liberty Corporate Finance, Springboard CF

ECI Partners acquired IT support services company BCN Group from Beech Tree Private Equity.

DLA Piper, Squire Patton Boggs, Clearwater International, EY, PwC, Beech Tree Private Equity, ECI Partners.

WestBridge took a majority stake in Alpine Fire Engineers, investing £18.7m, while Soho Square Capital exited.

Addleshaw Goddard, Pinsent Masons, BDO, Blick Rothenberg, Clearwater International. Grant Thornton, Jamieson Corporate Finance, Soho Square Capital, WestBridge and Shawbrook.

TriSpan acquired a stake in Mowgli Street Food Group from Foresight.

BDO, Grant Thornton, Rising Stars LP, PwC, Foresight, TriSpan, OakNorth Bank.

LDC led a secondary buy-out of Horsefly from Mercia.

Brabners, Slater Heelis, Squire Patton Boggs, Grant Thornton, PwC, LDC, Mercia Fund Management.

Marlin Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Cloud Technology Solutions from Northedge Capital.

Mayer Brown, Squire Patton Boggs, Marlin Equity Partners, NorthEdge.

Greene King bought Hickory’s Smokehouse from Piper Private Equity.

BDO, RSM, Piper Private Equity.

M&A

APEM acquired GoBe Consultants, supported by a £25m refinance from Virgin Money.

Capital Law, Wallace, BDO, Dow Schofield Watts, Virgin Money, WestBridge.

JD Sports Gyms bought Bolton-based Total Swimming.

Gateley, Hill Dickinson, Cowgills.

EG Group / Asda bought the fuel retail operations of Co-operative Group in a deal worth £605m.

Addleshaw Goddard, Rothschild.

RSK made seven acquisitions of consultancy businesses around the UK in six weeks.

Dow Schofield Watts, Cortus Advisory, DWF.

Management buy out of Inprova Group.

NVM Private Equity, Shawbrook, DWF.

LDC acquired recruitment firm Talos360.

Houlihan Lokey, Addleshaw Goddard, DWF.

International

Fishawack acquired American healthcare advisers Avalere Health.

Clearsight Advisors.

US private equity firm Silver Lake took a further 4.1% share in City Football Group, worth around $200m.

China Media Capital, Silver Lake.

RSK Group acquired Irish company Dermot Casey and French company ADEV Environment.

Dow Schofield Watts.

BluprintX bought American technology business IO Integration.

Distology acquired German technology firm Squareball Digital.

NorthEdge.

Catalyst Clinical Research, based in North Carolina, USA, bought Aptus Clinical.

Squire Patton Boggs.

Public Markets

AO World raised £40m in a share placing.

Jefferies International, Numis Securities.

Tatton Asset Management acquired 50% of 8AM Global in a £7m deal, with half paid as new shares.

BDO, Zeus Capital, Singer Capital Markets.

Sun European Partners bought K3 Capital Group for £270m.

Houlihan Lokey, Numis Securities, EY.

Redx Pharma raised £34m through a share placing.

Panmure Gordon Corporate Finance, SPARK Advisory Partners, WG Partners.

Norcros raised £18m to support the £92m acquisition of Grant Westfield.

Eversheds, Shepherd & Wedderburn, Grant Thornton, Numis Securities, EY.

Dechra Pharmaceuticals raised £184m in a rights issue to support the purchase of American company Piedmont Animal Health for $210m.

EY, DLA Piper, Investec.

Private Company

The Modern Milkman raised £50m in its Series C funding round.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher, ETF Partners, Insight Partners, Praetura Ventures.

ITS Technology Group secured £100m of funding from Aviva Investors.

BDB Pitmans, Dow Schofield Watts, RSM, Aviva Investors.

KPMG and Acceleris Capital formed a joint venture, focusing on businesses in technology, life sciences and ESG-related sectors.

Pinsent Masons.

Connex One raised £93m of Series C funding.

DWF, GP Bullhound.

Freedom Fibre secured £100m of scale-up funding – £84m from infrastructure investor Equitix, and a £16m debt facility from Santander.

Addleshaw Goddard, Shoosmiths, PwC, Santander, Equitix, Cameron Barney, Oakley Advisory.