Manchester's Clearwater International completes deals worth £410 million

Manchester-based Clearwater International has reportedly completed 13 deals in the space of two months, worth a combined value of £410m.

The deals, of which 5 were outside the UK, include advising on the sale of Burnt Tree, one of the UK’s largest providers of commercial vehicle rental, to Enterprise Rent-A-Car; and the sale of out-of-home digital advertising firm Signature Outdoor to LDC-backed Ocean Outdoor.

The UK arm has also advised gym chain Gymbox on its £10 million investment from Business Growth Fund.

The Danish part of Clearwater International has also enjoyed a busy period completing four deals.

This includes acting as exclusive financial adviser to Scandinavian publishing company Datagraf Group on its sale to Aller Media, which is a leading newspaper and magazine publisher in the Nordic region.

In Portugal, the firm has advised on the management buyout of metalwork production business Eurogalva; and has negotiated the restructuring of €38 million debt for Gascan, a distributor and marketer of propane gas.

The firm’s global success comes shortly after the formation of Clearwater International, which was created earlier this year following a merger with Clearwater Corporate Finance in the UK, Danish firm Advizer and IMAP Lynx, based in Spain and Portugal.

Michael Reeves, CEO of Clearwater International, said: “Deal activity has been relatively active across the UK and wider European markets.

“At Clearwater International, we have been able to capitalise on businesses gaining more confidence as well as private equity firms looking to buy and sell.

“This has resulted in a strong summer period and we expect the market to remain open for the rest of the year with deal pipelines looking solid across our offices.

“The formation of Clearwater International has been fantastic in strengthening our cross-border expertise and has helped to put us in touch with a greater number of businesses, both across Europe and the rest of the world.”