LDC director named Rainmaker of the Year

LDC’S John Garner was named the Rainmaker of the Year at TheBusinessDesk.com’s annual awards for the corporate finance community.

The dinner celebrated the great teams and deals in the community in the last 12 months.

The award winners were chosen by a two-step process. A workshop with 25 leading members of the community drew up the shortlists, with a much larger pool of people – although only one person per firm – then voting for each category.

Mr Garner, who is head of LDC in Yorkshire and North East, was chosen for his involvement in a number of key deals.

One of those deals, the £35m management buyout of Seabrook Crisps, won the M&A deal of the year.

The Rainmaker Awards, which were held at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, were supported by YBS Share Plans and Atom Bank and the evening’s charity partner was Leeds Community Foundation.

There were a hat-trick of awards for Endless, who took home VC/Private Equity Team of the Year, as well as Public Markets Deal, for the purchase of Kier FPS, and the Private Equity Exit, for its £43.2m sale of FMG to Redde.

The purchase of Pace by American group Arris for £1.4bn won International Deal of the Year while Business Growth Fund’s £7.6m equity investment in Xercise4Less was chosen as the best Small Cap Deal.

The team awards went to law firm Squire Patton Boggs, KPMG’s corporate finance team, HSBC for Funder of the Year, and PwC’s transaction services team took home the new award introduced for 2016.

TheBusinessDesk.com editor Alex Turner said: “It was a fantastic evening which showcased the quality of Yorkshire’s corporate finance community.

“The fact the winners are chosen by their peers means the trophies reflect the esteem and respect they are held in by those people who work alongside and opposite them on the deals that matter.”