Member Article

Tait Walker see surge in deals activity

North East accountancy practice Tait Walker has successfully completed eight deals in less than six months with a further deal expected in a matter of weeks.

Tait Walker’s corporate finance team has seen a surge in deals since the start of 2013, with fundraising and MBOs featuring more prominently than at any time since 2008.

Highlights for the corporate finance team have included assisting Northumberland-based New Leaf Food Group in securing fundraising with North Yorkshire-based trade investor Goldenfry to launch the golfing food and drink start-up, Sweet Spot.

Tait Walker also secured fundraising for Keiro (formally Whickham Villa LLP), which has built a new community based neuro-rehabilitation centre in Teesside, and the team also secured fundraising for start-up snack manufacturer All Good Ltd, based in Team Valley.

Tait Walker partner Michael Smith said: “We have had a really positive start to the year and activity levels have improved substantially compared to last year. This is a result of the increasing levels of confidence within management teams.

“Because we do a substantial amount of deals, we are quick to catch on to changes in the funding landscape, and management teams are having to make strategic investments now as economic recovery has already started to progress - all of which are very good signs for the future of our economy.

“Based on where we are now and the corporate finance team’s current pipeline of activity, I would expect further increased numbers of deals in the latter part of this year, certainly in value terms.”

Michael explains the changes in the deals market: “A lot of the corporate finance team’s activity in the last three years went towards disposals to overseas buyers. Now there is much more evidence of sales to buyers in the UK and increasingly private equity. I also think we will start to see the resurgence of management buy-outs as confidence continues to increase.”

The most recent of Tait Walker’s successful deals this year was the structure of a management buy-out for Teesside based Cleveland Biotech, a result of having advised the management team for the past year and introducing funders NVM Private Equity.

“The presence of the JEREMIE funds has been very helpful in providing more access to funding for local SMEs. There are also a lot more UK buyers than there were in previous years, which has helped to improve timescales and overall will only stand to benefit the North East economy.

“It’s been great to assist several strong, local management teams in securing funding for MBOs which will really give a boost to the region. It’s really positive to see and we hope it will be the start of many more good things to come.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tait Walker .