Scrap metal, plastics and lawyers, but who's up for an award?
A busy week in the world of the northern Rainmakers - and what you might have missed
Consolidation fever continued to rip through the professional services market this week.
It is likely to dominate the deals agenda for the remainder of the year.
In this week’s round up, we’ll do a quick reminder of what key deals got away this week.
But first, we held our judging session for this summer’s Rainmakers Awards in the North West on Wednesday (above).
We’ll be gathering the clans in Leeds on Tuesday.
It’s an opportunity for the more than 40 corporate finance leaders to look through the data and share their collective insights in order select the shortlist for our Rainmaker Awards 2024. They delved into the individuals and teams responsible for arranging more than 500 deals, mergers and acquisitions over the last year.
The shortlist for the North West is here.
Each firm will then have a one-vote per category to crown who’s been making it rain across our regions deals-wise. The winners will be unveiled on the 2nd of July in Leeds and the 3rd of July in Manchester - you can get your tickets here.
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This week on Rainmakers we’ve treated subscribers to a couple of great stories.
First was the confessional from entrepreneur Jo Sellick who told his story to me about the profound sense of detachment and loss of purpose as his golden handcuffs loosened and his five year earn-out from selling the Sellick partnership to French services group Samsic.
Then on Thursday, in readiness for the release of Welcome to Wrexham on Disney Plus next week, I thought I’d share the prequel story about how the oldest football club in Wales was shortly owned by a couple of Cheshire-based developers and ended up in a perilous state. And you’ll learn what a Dismal Jimmy is. What a tale.
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Leeds-based Endless has completed a fifth acquisition from its £400m fund, with the purchase of Enablelink, a West Midlands-based metal recycling business.
Enablelink processes more than 300,000 tonnes of material per year across its three production sites in Great Bridge, Cradley Heath and Birmingham, specialising in the acquisition, processing and distribution of ferrous and non-ferrous material.
Endless says it will provide Enablelink with additional capital for growth and to support the management team to meet the increasing demand for recycled metals.
I’m fascinated by the investment logic behind Endless’ £400m Fund V which raised funds on the basis that it would invest into UK mid-market companies to support them on “a transformation journey”. Other businesses currently in the Endless investment portfolio include: KTC – the UK’s leading supplier of edible oils to the food industry; Menzies Distribution – the UKs leading time-sensitive logistics business; as well as heritage bakery brand Hovis; and Scottish energy business ASCO in August 2023.
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One professional services firm that snubbed the approaches of a consolidator was JS - formerly Jackson Stephen.
The Warrington-based accountancy and advisory firm completed a management buyout (MBO) from its previous owners. The deal sees the firm transition from its current partnership model to a new corporate structure to support with future growth plans. The senior individuals will still be known as partners.
Managing partner Lucy Williams told me that the vendors preferred to sell to management than accept an offer from a sector consolidator, backed by private equity investors, and instead has an ambitious plan of her own.
“I wouldn’t say no to future acquisitions and mergers if they share our ethos and also don’t want to sell to a consolidator,” she said.
Earlier this year Bolton-based Cowgills sold to Sumer, while Azets has also been buying up practices that fit the profile of £6.2m turnover JS.
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Something similar is clearly stirring in the legal sector too.
Manchester firm Slater Heelis joining Lawfront is a real statement of intent by private-equity backers Blixt and the faith they’ve shown in Neil Lloyd (far left) as he looks to really amplify the national network he is building up.
Slater Heelis takes Lawfront’s revenue to approximately £70m, and in the North West it also owns Farleys.
I’m really interested in speaking to leaders in professional services firms who are weighing up their strategic options.
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Beech Tree Private Equity tend to keep their heads down and let their deals do the talking.
I spoke to founder Andy Marsh this week in the aftermath of him completing the investment into Lytham-based Sustainable Energy First, a sustainable energy and utilities specialist. We’re due to have a longer chat soon as his plans come together for some new opportunities at Beech Tree.
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FTSE 100 group Diploma has bought PAR group, a North West plastics specialist in a £38m deal to slot it into R&G Fluid Power, which it bought in April 2022, and says it will be “adding scale” to that division.
PAR is a shirt sponsor of Preston North End FC and headquartered in Chorley with a second site in Heywood, Greater Manchester, it supplies specialist seals and gaskets into a broad range of end markets.
It’s a dream acquisition target with £13m-turnover and pre-tax profits of £4.6m in each of its last two financial years.
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One of the fascinating things about covering this market are the Rainmakers themselves.
This week, Manchester’s biggest international law firm Addleshaw Goddard has appointed one of the top corporate lawyers, Roger Hart, to be their new head of the Manchester office.
He takes over the role from financial litigator Harold Brako after the end of his three-year term in office.
You have to hope that Roger will continue in his corporate advisory work with heavyweight clients such as JD Sports, BT, Currys, Speedy Hire and MoneySuperMarket, where he advises many of the region’s top businesses on M&A, public takeovers, IPOs, fundraisings, directors’ responsibilities and governance issues.
An Addleshaws lifer, he trained at legacy firm Addleshaw Sons and Latham and becoming a Partner at Addleshaw Goddard in 2005.
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Our next Rainmakers lunch will feature special guest Ruth Percival, above, CEO of Contollo Group, a buy and build consultancy group backed by private equity investor NorthEdge, a deal that also made the shortlist for this year’s Rainmakers awards.
We’re giving subscribers to Rainmakers the first shot at tickets for this event, which you can register for here.
As she embarks on this new venture, this seasoned leader with extensive expertise in the corporate finance, power/energy, and healthcare sectors, will share her strategic ambitions for Contollo and the lessons learned from her impressive track record of leading multi-disciplinary teams across diverse professional service disciplines including commercial/sales and operational/service delivery roles.
She describes her leadership as values-driven, emphasizing integrity, kindness, and collaboration.
Her latest venture, Contollo is a progressive new consultancy that works with commercial developers to offer consulting services in Cost Management and MEP, with particular expertise in smart buildings.
As reported on TheBusinessDesk.com at the time, Contollo made its first acquisition in February 2024 to acquire Abacus, a Manchester-based cost management consultancy which has worked for Vita Student Living, Sunderland AFC and Bolton Wanderers FC.
Contollo sees Ruth once again working alongside entrepreneur Oliver Dennis, as she did at medcomms consultancy group Fishawack.
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Thank you for subscribing to Rainmakers.
Because of the May Day bank holiday on Monday we’ll do one long read next week, on Wednesday, where I’ll be looking at the deals being done to acquire professional services firms, what it means and where things are going.
On Friday, free to everyone, we’ll pull out a few of the completed deals from that week and look under the hood a bit more. I might even have an educated guess at some of the prices paid on all of the undisclosed deals we get to hear about.
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