Insider has revealed the individuals, firms and funders up for an award at this year’s 25th anniversary Midland’s awards ceremony, and we’re delighted to announce that our specialist Corporate Finance team is in the running for two distinguished awards:
- SME Advisory Team of the Year
- SME Deal of the Year – being the private equity funded Management buy-in buy-out of Meika, trading as Primrose, Europe’s largest pureplay online garden products retailer. The professional firms involved comprised Smith Cooper Corporate Finance, Claritas Tax, Shakespeare Martineau, DSW, Spectrum Corporate Finance, Rockpool Investments, Womble Bond Dickinson, OakNorth Bank, and BGF.
We believe our dedicated approach and innovative tailor-made solutions are key attributes that have led to us winning these Insider awards on a recurring basis. Specifically, in recent years the team has won Advisory Team of the Year, SME Advisory Team of the Year and the SME Deal of the Year awards, across the East Midlands and the wider Midlands.
SCCF experienced phenomenal success in 2018/19 financial year, completing 43 deals collectively valued at £266 million, the largest of which was £75 million, and securing 6th position in Experian’s financial advisor rating, well above most independent firms’ performances.
Our notable recent deals include the buy-in-management-buy-out of Primrose as referenced above, the buy-in buy-out of Miriad – the UK’s largest wholesaler of products to the motorhome and caravan industry and one only a few deals in the UK that utilised specialist royalty finance, and the sale of technology company, Prestige Fleet Services to the AA.
Two of the corporate finance team, Alex Thompson and Tom Joy, have recently been promoted to Assistant Managers to further strengthen the team’s offering and bolster its developing pipeline.
John Farnsworth, head of Corporate Finance at Smith Cooper comments “The team have completed some landmark deals across the East and West Midlands, and further afield, in the last year.”
“As a team, we have been privileged to represent our clients in some truly fascinating deals and have achieved exceptional outcomes; we are delighted this has been recognised by such a distinguished awards body.”
The award ceremony will be taking place on Thursday 12th September, where the winners of all 15 categories will be announced.
