Member Article

Advisory team completes double-hat-trick of deals in four weeks

GRANT Thornton’s Yorkshire and North East’s advisory team has completed a flurry of six deals in just four weeks, with the firm’s Corporate Finance and Restructuring specialists at the heart of some of the region’s most significant transactions.

Corporate finance deals included Poundland’s transformational acquisition of Barnsley-based business Fultons Foods.

This highly significant strategic deal, led by Corporate Finance Director Jim Whittaker and Associate Director Robert Umpleby, triggered a £25m investment by Poundland to roll out a chilled and frozen food offering across Poundland’s shops, upscale Fulton’s distribution facilities, and create around 1,000 full time and part time jobs.

The team also advised on the sale of Skipton and Worksop based Hollings – a producer of natural dog treats – to Assisi Pet Care. Assisi is a new venture backed by a private equity firm which is looking to become a key player in the UK and European pet market.

The acquisition of a Northern health-tech company by a listed US company completed the corporate finance treble.

Led by Partner Chris Petts and Director James Bulloss, the restructuring team’s hat-trick comprised:

• The sale, out of administration, of Doncaster based Universal Recycling to Remet Processing Ltd, a deal which secured the future for more than 50 employees at the metals recycling specialist; • A pre-pack sale to a Yorkshire-based trade buyer of North East engineering company Cylinder Services and • A complex long-term, multi-million pound debt refinance and restructure at a prominent, fully-listed Yorkshire company. Andy Wood, Yorkshire and North East Managing Partner at Grant Thornton said: “Our teams have been working flat out in the last month or so to complete some incredibly important transactions and therefore deserve enormous credit.

“Deals creating jobs and opportunities and those securing the future of businesses, including saving many people’s livelihoods, are critically important to our region at this time of continued economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

“It’s credit to the resilience and enterprise of the Yorkshire business community that our teams remain so active.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Helena Young .