Rickitt Mitchell set to hire as deal flow picks up

RICKITT Mitchell, the corporate finance house, is expanding after completing 13 deals in the last 12 months.

The eight-strong Manchester firm has also also promoted two members of its team, Ashley Haworth and Tim Ritchie to associate director after a 50% rise in annual revenues.

Its focus on long term relationships with clients is continuing to pay off – as well as acting for listed Manchester IT services provider NCC Group on three acquisitions this year – it is advising regional airline Flybe on its planned IPO.

Partner Stuart Moss told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We’re looking to grow as we expect deal volumes to increase in the next couple of years. We’re looking for one new hire immediately and another early next year.

“I think it is sensible to put the building blocks in place now for 2012 when we expect deal volumes to come back.

“We’re pleased with our performance this year, as everyone knows it has been challenging, but year-on-year we have completed five more deals than in 2009.”

While the business environment is expected to remain tough, Mr Moss is optimistic that 2011 will continue to be busy: “Hopefully in the next three months three fairly size-able deals will come off.”

Rickitt Mitchell, which has acted on deals ranging in value from less than £1m to more than £500m, is looking to recruit two newly-qualified chartered accountants from the major practices. Mr Haworth joined at this level from BDO in 2005 and Tim Ritchie from Deloitte in 2006.

Mr Moss, pictured, said: “We have adopted this model for the last 20 years or so, and it has worked very well, we have really low staff attrition. Our stability and our long-term relationships with our clients have been big advantages.”

Its links with NCC Group – where partner Paul Mitchell is non-executive chairman – began in 2003 when the company was still part of the National Computing Centre.

The connection with Flybe meanwhile, is the result of a relationship with the airline’s deputy chairman Mark Chown, a former North West venture capitalist who went to work for the Walker Family Trust, which is a major shareholder in Flybe.

A mid-market specilaist since 1976, among Rickitt Mitchell’s most memorable deals was the £575m flotation of Manchester based TeleCity – which in the first Dot-com era reached a market value of £1.7bn, despite never having made a profit.