Endless continues Birmingham restructure with new appointments

TURNAROUND specialist Endless has announced further changes to its staffing set-up in Birmingham following the departure of director Nick Leitch.

The firm has appointed Indra Valeinis as associate director and Kerry Swain as investment manager to work in support of co-founder and partner Darren Forshaw, who now heads the Endless team in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.  

Both Valeinis and Swain were previously focused on the Endless business in Leeds but have been increasingly involved in transactions in the Midlands in recent years.

Endless closed its third fund, Endless Fund III, in July, raising £220m in 10 weeks.

This has given the firm substantial capital to invest in its principal targets, turnarounds, restructurings and special situations.

It said the need for such funding at the current time was important as liquidity in the investment and debt markets was once again drying up.

At least £50m of the fund has been allocated for investment in the Midlands, which has traditionally proved a strong source of deal flow for the Endless team.  

“I am excited to be spending a lot more time in the Midlands,” said Ms Valeinis.

“There continues to be a wealth of opportunity within the region and many good businesses which have been affected by the economic environment are now seeking a bespoke solution, some specialist funding and support.

“We have made several successful investments in the Midlands and I am looking forward to working with the local professional community to deliver further successes into Fund III.”

Mr Forshaw added: “Our continued commitment to maintain a strong presence in the Midlands is demonstrated by the high calibre of our team on the ground.  Both Indra and Kerry are experienced professionals and we are confident of a strong deal pipeline into 2012 and beyond.

“We are starting to see companies experiencing a real shortage of financing options at a time when general economic uncertainty is increasing, being not dissimilar to 2008.  We look forward to being able to provide local companies with a viable financing option despite this difficult backdrop.”

Endless’ most recent Midlands investment was the £27m acquisition of Willenhall-based Acenta Steel (formerly Niagara LaSalle UK), the UK’s largest independent engineering steel processor and distributor, earlier this year. Forshaw, Valeinis and Swain all worked on the transaction.

Ms Valeinis is an ACA qualified accountant with over 10 years of experience across industry, professional practice and private equity, having joined the Investment team at Endless in 2006.  Key projects have included the acquisition, portfolio management and recent exit of Crown Paints, the acquisition and management of Burton-on-Trent based The Webb Group and transactional work on Vasanta, the £450m turnover office supplies group acquired in 2009.

Ms Swain, left, joined the Investment team in July 2010 from KPMG, after five years in professional practice.  Key projects include ongoing portfolio management at Acenta, transactional work on Liberata, a leading supplier of business process outsourcing to the public sector, and post acquisition projects at The Webb Group.