Team completes £160m worth of deals in 12 months

Deals totalling £160m in value have been completed by the corporate finance team at Yorkshire accountants and business advisers Garbutt + Elliott over the last 12 months.

A total of 65 UK-wide transactions were handled by the team, which operates from York and Leeds offices, in a year that saw the firm appointed to advise on more activity outside its Yorkshire and Humber heartland.

Deals included management buyouts, acquisitions, finance raising, and business sales in sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, catering, telecoms, retail, healthcare, construction, haulage, residential care, IT, and food.

Among the team’s significant deals has been supporting a management buy out at Warrington-based data services firm, Qbase, advising on growth investment by London-based Seed Partners in international fitting out company, DDI Projects, Dorset, and a major, confidential deal in Yorkshire in a struggling commercial sector which started before lockdown and completed in May.

Head of corporate finance, Tony Farmer, said: “After an encouraging year, the pandemic is creating new challenges but the big difference to the banking crisis 11 years ago is that the money supply is available and two significant deals we completed during lockdown shows there is still an appetite for transactions.

“Some deals that we have in hand were placed on hold during the lockdown because of their commercial sector.

“Others slowed down but are now progressing and we are already seeing renewed interest in good-quality businesses.

“There will inevitably be some business failures as some struggling sectors thin out, but I’m optimistic that values will hold up for good businesses.

“Our team has broad experience, and having two former high street bankers in David Streather and Neil Williams, enables us to cover corporate finance from all angles, including helping distressed businesses where we have the experience to re-structure, refinance and help them grow rather than failing.”