£100m N Brown refinancing takes Deal of the Month
FOR the second time in three months TheBusinessDesk.com’s judging panel, comprising leading figures from the region’s corporate finance community, have chosen the refinancing of a retailer as their Deal of the Month.
Five of the 10 judges backed Manchester-backed the £100m refinancing of Manchester home shopping group N Brown, which involved incumbent lenders HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, and will be used to support the listed company’s growth plans.
Despite the challenging retail market, N Brown, the name behind High & Mighty, JD Williams, Jacamo and Figleaves has performed well, expanding internationally and and also opening retail stores in this country for its Simply Be brand.
Rothschilds’ managing director Andrew Thomas, Andy Parker of PwC, Roger Hart of Addleshaw Goddard, Jodi Birkett from Deloitte and Adele Librae of Lewis Hymanson Small, all voted for this deal as the top transaction of November.
Andy Parker of PwC said: “Given all of the negativity surrounding retailing, it’s great to see a local business with a presence in both high street and home shopping securing its funding into the future and allowing it a platform for further growth.”
Adele Librae, partner at Manchester law firm Lewis Hymanson Small, said: “In this challenging retail environment it is refreshing to see not one but two banks recognising N Brown’s potential and giving their support.
“N Brown is clearly a business that will not take the recession lying down and is not afraid of expanding into international markets. The encouraging message for North West businesses is that with the right growth strategy and innovation, funds are available. “
Jodi Birkett, transaction services partner at Deloitte added: “The deal demonstrates that the banks still have an appetite to lend to businesses to fund growth.
“The funding is targeted at meeting the business’ demands for its multi-channel business, which is a key component to success in the retail environment.”
Roger Hart of Addleshaw Goddard said N Brown is a business which the region should be proud of.
“It has outperformed a challenging sector and this refinancing will allow it to invest for further growth and in the opportunities which the difficult retail environment will inevitably throw up in 2012.”
In what was a fairly strong month – by recent comparisons -the N Brown deal saw off competition from the £54m trade sale of Lancashire engineering business Weston (three votes) and the AIM-listing of Inspired Energy (two votes).
