Dry powder. Refi. Wannabee footy tycoons. Carve outs. And padel.
Dry powder. Refi. Wannabee footy tycoons. Carve outs. And padel.
Just another lively week in regional M&A
Hello Rainmakers,
At our different summer barbies the conversation has been full of what might be coming next.
Steady deal flow, dry powder, refinancing, consolidations, carve outs.
And padel.
Rainmakers subscribers have had a couple of summer treats this week too.
We wrote about how telecoms disruptor TalkTalk managed to keep the lights on with a major £400m debt restructure. But they won’t be the last to be frantically trying to work out with lenders what they need to do to deal with big debt mountains.
We look at what awaits Boohoo, and others, facing the ticking clock.
We covered the flurry of football M&A, with Premier League Everton serving as a brutal example of trying to get a deal done in the public eye, but with so many unknown factors at play.
WHAT IS IT WITH PADEL?
There was an inevitability that Padel would feature as one of the first deals to have got away from the second run of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund in a £1.5m deal.
As prevalent amongst the corporate finance community as quarter zip knitwear the hybrid racquet sport has exploded.
Louise Chapman, fund principal at Praetura, far right, said: “This is one of the largest external fundraises by a padel operator in the UK to date.”
Manchester law firm JMW even has a specialist team advising on planning applications and business strategy for padel businesses. One of the firm’s senior partners, Marc Yaffe is himself a self-confessed “paddict”.
We’re going to definitely have a look at more padel deals in a future Rainmakers deep dive.
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WHO ACTUALLY OWNS EVERTON?
On Rainmakers this week regular subscribers will have had access to our chunky story about deals in the football world.
With the start of the football season only days away, not only is transfer speculation running rampant, but so are takeover rumours.
We picked apart a few recent developments and looked at the roller coaster of Everton FC and the bizarre goings on with potential investor 777.
No other industry seems to attract such a wild and wacky cast of characters as football.
No purchase and sale process is quite like it either. Despite the best efforts of Rainmakers to detect leaks and find traces of activity, we rarely pick up chatter on deals in software, or toilet roll manufacturing, until they are pretty much done.
But football is a leaky sieve. Fans forums, social media, specialist journalists, are all over the speculation of interest from “tycoons”, “billionaires”, and “mystery consortiums”.
And as the English Premier League season looks to kick off this weekend - Friday night, as well as Saturday morning, afternoon and evening and then the same again on Sunday and Monday - the big influx of television and video streaming income coming into the sport continues to attract investors from nation states, wealthy families, asset rich conglomerates and random mavericks looking for a quick turn, or a marketing angle.
You can read the full football deals piece here if you subscribe.
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A SIMPLE GAME, MADE MORE COMPLICATED BY WITH STATISTICAL INPUT FROM AMERICANS
English football fans always keenly resist the Americanisation of their sport - cheerleaders, animals in the team names, the misunderstood origin of the word "soccer" - but with two exceptions: rich owners and a new-found obsession with statistics.
Football is the simplest of games. There is only one way to score points, a goal, and each goal is worth one. The celebrity songwriters of Vindaloo summed up the aim: "we're gonna score one more than you".
Or at least it was. Now the game is awash with xG (expected goals), goal/assist counts and a barrage of so many other numbers it's like trying to read a stock market announcement from a company that doesn't want to admit it's doing badly.
There are, of course, sporting benefits from a stats-based approach. Anyone who has read (well, watched) Moneyball knows about the Oakland A's baseball side and wonders if only Brad Pitt could come and work for their League One football club then they could be playing in the Champions League within four years.
This week, US sports technology giant Hudl has acquired Bath-based (soccer and American) football analytics company StatsBomb.
StatsBomb's chief executive Ted Knutson said: "By bringing StatsBomb into Hudl’s suite of best-in-class products and services, we’re helping sporting organisations streamline how they uncover immediate actionable insights."
It's not quite as memorable as legendary Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly's view on actionable insights. He is meant to have told Ian St John: "if you're in the penalty area and don't know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we'll discuss the options later".
And he wasn't talking about share options.
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A CORNISH TALE
Private equity backed BK Plus has added two more offices to its ever-growing family, bringing its office count to a whopping 21 in four short years.
The accounting and financial advisory firm, Walker Moyle and Pooleys Chartered Accountants will join the BK Plus team on its mission to help serve SMEs in the South West.
With these deals marking its sixth office in the South West, BK Plus has established a dedicated Cornwall hub—because, honestly, who wouldn’t want an office in a place where you can get a pasty on every corner?
Just last September, they got a boost from Palatine Private Equity, which probably helped fuel their spree of acquisitions.
It’s like BK Plus is on a treasure hunt for accountancy practices, with recent finds in Fareham and Aldridge.
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A BIRD IN THE HAND
The deeply-secretive world of financial services and wealth management might not seem like the sexiest subject in the world, but, quietly, one Nottingham firm is growing its own mini-empire.
Wren Sterling has swooped again - this time going down south to snap up In Focus Group. The acquisition brings £450m in assets and 2,500 clients under the Wren Sterling Group’s management.
The In Focus Group’s Fareham office will become Wren Sterling’s new Solent base on the south coast.
Also in the In Focus Group flock, led by managing director Nick Stewart, are two other companies called Certus and Hughes Carne, which they previously acquired.
It's the second time in a month that Wren has left its Nottingham nest and headed to the warmer climes of the south; in July the company swooped for Kent-based Howe Maxted Financial Services.
Wren Sterling’s chief executive James Twining said he wants to give the In Focus wings to grow the business, he didn’t actually, but we wanted to labour the avian metaphor. He actually said: “Nick and his team have built a business through careful acquisition but also high levels of entrepreneurialism, which aligns with our strategy to give our advisers the freedom to grow their business.”
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SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED
In East Yorkshire, Hodgson Sealants Group - which is the biggest independent sealant manufacturer in the UK - has exited HS Butyl Ltd, the UK's largest maker and distributor of butyl tapes.
The latter firm, which was acquired by Hodgson Sealants back in 2007, has now been sold to NYSE-listed HB Fuller, a major global adhesives producer. This deal will help $3bn turnover HB Fuller accelerate its expansion into the $15bn global waterproofing tape market.
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LUCKY DUNSTONE, THE GAMBLER THAT TENDS TO WIN
Sir Charles Dunstone is reportedly a smart man. An entrepreneur and risk taker, who has backed himself to disrupt the competitive market of telecoms in the UK.
When TalkTalk was launched as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse in 2003 it did so with a massive gamble, that all customers talk to each other on voice calls for free, forever, which was one of the first big disruptions to the industry. He led the demerger and subsequent listing of TalkTalk in 2010, and remains a major investor following the take-private in 2020.
It’s also been through one of the worst data leaks in UK history that did untold damage to the reputation and confidence of the business.
Through his investment vehicle, Freston Ventures, he invests alongside others in disruptive start-ups across a variety of sectors, including the online estate agency Strike, and food brands Five Guys and Chicken Shop.
But his team at TalkTalk have been locked in complex negotiations over their debt pile recently and he’s overseen a major restructure of the business.
You can read the full piece here.
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RAINMAKERS SEMINAR IN BIRMINGHAM
As the corporate finance community anticipates the end of a subdued and uncertain period, the upcoming Rainmakers Seminar in Birmingham in September will explore the challenge of becoming deal-ready for 2025.
With a more stable policy landscape expected following the general election and some economic headwinds easing, the seminar will concentrate on several key areas:
Current market demand and appetite
Funders’ primary areas of focus
The increasing significance of factors beyond financials, especially ESG and data
Opportunities within the Midlands market and Rainmakers’ role in driving growth
Hear from Katie Trout, director of policy & partnerships at the West Midlands Growth Company on what opportunities are available for the corporate finance community to engage with across the region.
A keynote speech from a leading West Midlands business figure will follow, offering their insights into working with Rainmakers on M&A proposals and securing investment.
An expert panel consisting of Tom Hustler, senior investment director at Palatine, Nick Gillott, corporate finance partner at Grant Thornton, Deepak Parekh, senior director at Shawbrook Bank, with more speakers to be announced.
RAINMAKERS CONFERENCE IS BACK IN 2025
The art of such deals is just the sort of thing which will pepper our 2025 Rainmakers Conference.
It’s being supported by BGF, Dow Schofield Watts, NorthEdge, Palatine, Shawbrook, Squire Patton Boggs, while PHD Industrial Holdings is a breakout room partner.
So save the date for Rainmakers 2025 – Wednesday 26 March, 2025 – and secure your place today at The Point, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
It will bring more opportunities to network, more amazing speakers, more candid debate, more inspiring entrepreneurs, but also a chance to discuss the challenges of value creation.
The first Rainmakers Conference this March sold out, with more than 400 people attending to hear the insights and perspectives from entrepreneurs, investors and advisors, and to network with senior figures from across the corporate finance community.
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