Yorkshire team completes major merger

A TEAM of deals professionals from across the region have worked together to complete a major merger in the contract catering sector.

Bankers, lawyers and corporate financiers from Yorkshire worked on the merger of  Taylor Shaw, a North West partnership providing contract catering services to the education and corporate sectors, with Watford-based Caterplus Services, a specialist caterer in the care and welfare market, to create one of the largest privately-owned contract catering organisations in the UK.
 
Teams from BTG McInnes Corporate Finance, Pinsent Masons and Cobbetts advised on the deal that was backed by Yorkshire Bank in Leeds and supported by Caterplus’ existing investors, led by YFM Private Equity.
 
The deal was completed simultaneously with the acquisition of Newcastle-based Hospitality Catering Services, immediately establishing a nationwide presence for the new group.
 
Taylor Shaw’s managing partner, Peter Taylor, will join the group executive management team as a shareholder alongside the existing Caterplus management team, led by chairman Vince Pearson and managing director Jim Lovett, and their investors.
 
The combined businesses have a turnover in excess of £35m and will now employ more than 1,600 staff across over 350 educational establishments, care homes, welfare shelters, and office and factory canteens throughout the UK.
 
The group will continue to trade under its three separate brand names.
 
Andy Miller of BTG McInnes Corporate Finance, who advised Caterplus management and investors on the transactions, said: “The fact that so many Leeds professionals worked together on a national deal for three businesses all based outside the region is testament to the city’s standing in deal making. Together we were able to put together the requisite funding structure and deliver two legally and financially complex deals that completed simultaneously. Caterplus has grown rapidly since its £4m buy-in management buy-out last February, through a clear strategy that should deliver more transactions in the medium term, and more work for the Leeds professionals involved.”
 
Peter Wood of Pinsent Masons led the team who advised Caterplus on the legal aspects of the transactions and Mark Davies of Cobbetts to Yorkshire Bank. Ruth Cherry led the Yorkshire Bank team and Nigel Barraclough of YFM Private Equity represented the investors.