Member Article

Grant Thornton celebrates bumper NW deals year  

Grant Thornton UK LLP’s corporate finance practice has ended its latest financial year on a high, with North West transactions featuring strongly.

During the year ending 30 June 2014, the accountancy firm was involved in over 140 different deals, covering both buy and sell-side mandates. These include a significant rise in private equity (PE) transactions, which saw a 46% increase in volume over the period, compared with the year prior.

North West highlights included a $83m disposal involving the Lancashire-headquartered manufacturing group Andrew Industries, which sold sixbusinesses in its filtration division to US-based Lydall Inc.

Other North West projects included advising Sceptre Leisure on a £20m refinancing with Chenavari, a European debt fund making its first UK lend.

Grant Thornton also advised the shareholders of Solfex, which distributes renewable energy systems, on a £38million disposal to Travis Perkins­. The Manchester and Liverpool team also acted for the shareholders and HSBC on the disposal of Gelert, a leading camping brand, on its sale to Sports Direct.

Manchester based Ali Sharifi, the national head of corporate finance advisory at Grant Thornton UK LLP, said: “The past year has been a truly exciting ride, and we are optimistic about our growth prospects for the next 12 months.

“The progressive improvement in the domestic economy and continued performance of international markets has driven interest in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity significantly upwards over the past year – particularly in the mid-market segment – and has fuelled a healthy pipeline of deals.

“M&A is firmly on the agenda of most boards as they focus on driving growth. The momentum in the marketplace, coupled with the enthusiasm and eagerness to develop further as a team, undoubtedly puts us in a perfect position to continue our strong growth.”

Across the UK the Grant Thornton corporate finance team continued to deliver a substantial number of offers from international buyers on many of its transactions.

Deals were completed with several US buyers and also companies based in all of the key European territories. A growing interest was also noted from wider afield such as China and Japan.

The increased M&A activity has been supported by improved liquidity and availability of capital - both equity and debt, and a step up in IPO activity‎.

The team saw a marked increase in new listing activity on AIM over the year which was reflective of overall improved market conditions with 80 new listings, almost double that of the previous year, raising £2.4bn, triple the value on the previous year.

Grant Thornton was once again recognised by Experian Corpfin as the number one financial adviser to UK companies by deal volume earlier this year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .