Buzzacott Corporate Finance

🌹 Deal announcement ✈️ The Buzzacott Transaction Services team advised Rose Street Partners on the investment in Padpilot. Padpilot is a rapidly growing provider of digital training content to the aviation industry. Founded in 2010 and based in Gloucester the company has grown into one of the European leaders within its sector driven by the unrivalled quality of its content. Rose Street is a long-term investor that looks to provide a permanent home for enduring businesses in the UK. It has raised a committed pool of permanent capital from leading founders, CEOs and investors across the globe. This enables it to hold businesses forever rather than buying to sell after a few years. The Buzzacott team provided financial and tax due diligence as well as transaction advisory services. The FDD and transaction advisory team was made up of George Thresh, Alex Judd and Victoria Sunley. The TDD team was made up of Alastair McQuater, Anaïs Lienhart Ortega and Andrea Lupson.

🎅 Buzzacott Film & Christmas word mash-up quiz! 🎄 📽️ A spill over from our Christmas party we thought we would share with our network. (The difficulty was received with mixed reception!) Email BoyceM@Buzzacott.co.uk for answers or wait until they are released in the comments in the New Year!

🌹 Deal announcement ☔ We're still going! The Buzzacott Transaction Services team advised Rose Street Partners on the investment in Kenwood Damp Proofing. Founded in 1982 and based in Watford, Kenwood is a leading damp proofing and timber treatment contractor which attends over 20,000 properties each year in London and most of its neighbouring counties. Rose Street is a long-term investor who looks to provide a permanent home for enduring businesses in the UK. It has raised a committed pool of permanent capital from leading founders, CEOs and investors across the globe. This enables it to hold businesses forever rather than buying them to sell after a few years. Dan Skyte, of Rose Street, said “Kenwood Damp Proofing is an exceptional business with a rich history and a stellar reputation, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to Rose Street. We’re incredibly proud to invest in family businesses like Kenwood. Preserving such legacies was a huge part of the motivation for founding Rose Street, and it is a responsibility we take seriously.” The Buzzacott team provided financial and tax due diligence services as well as transaction advisory. The team was made up of George Thresh, Kazia Kruszewski and Anaïs Lienhart Ortega, led by Alex Judd. (Link to deal announcement in the comments 👇 )

Deal announcement ☀️ The Buzzacott Transaction Services team is delighted to have advised Downing Sustainable Investment (DSI) on its acquisition of 2,900 domestic rooftop solar installations. The team provided financial and tax due diligence services as well as buy-side and transaction structuring support to the Downing team. The acquisition gives DSI exposure to UK wind and solar assets, and supports its mandate to provide access to renewable energy investments that deliver a positive environmental impact. Well done James Wood and Megan Leonard-Moran, supported by Alex Judd, who performed the financial due diligence. The tax due diligence was performed by Kazia Kruszewski, Nick Lee and Luke Savvas. The VAT consultancy team was led by Kamlesh Chauhan.

On 29th January the Valuations team will be holding a breakfast seminar specifically designed for lawyers looking to learn more about business valuations.

Last week, George Thresh, Associate Director in our Transaction Services team, featured on the panel at an event co-hosted by Buzzacott Corporate Finance, Marriott Harrison and EOS Worldwide, exploring the hot topic of Entrepreneurship through Acquisition. A huge success, the event explored key themes keeping searchers up at night, with many key takeaways, no matter your stage in the acquisition journey. Below, find 5 key takeaways: ⌚ Acquiring a business can be very emotional for the seller, so it’s important to position yourself as a worthwhile custodian of the business you are taking over, way ahead of time. Taking the time to build up a strong personal relationship between yourself and the seller is often crucial and can see a searcher get ahead of potential trade or PE acquirers. ✉️ When drafting up LOIs/HoTs, it’s important to ensure that your enterprise value remains flexible (include a clear mechanism showing how it has been calculated). This flexibility helps to ensure issues identified at diligence can be addressed without renegotiating the whole principle on which the offer is based. ❗ When performing financial due diligence look to address potential major red flags as early as possible in the process (to avoid unnecessary time and money costs). Examples of potentially deal-killing red flags can include revenue recognition and categorisation issues, suspect EBITDA adjustments posted to reach a normalised position and other more general instances where the target accounting policies are not in line with FRS 102.  🤝 Lean on your advisors throughout the deal process. They can have the tough conversations on your behalf when negotiating the SPA or EV Bridge ensuring that you don’t risk damaging the positive relationship you have built up with the seller. 📊 Given the large number of work streams in operation (Deal Negotiation, Due Diligence, Equity Raising Debt Raising, NSIA/FCA notification) it is vital that searchers are organised and keep each moving at pace. Doing so helps to make the transaction as efficient as possible and ensure there isn’t a significant delay where a seller could potentially get cold feet.  The rest of the panel was made up of David Baverstock, Shane Bohbrink, Steve Lawrence and Paul Quirk.

Great insight from Megan Leonard-Moran on how the team achieved what they did in Sept/Oct!

George Thresh of our Transaction Services team will be joining the panel on 27th November to discuss pre and post acquisition issues for ETA professionals. The event is invite only and only has a handful of places remaining so please do register interest to avoid missing out

The UK's current high-interest rate environment has likely contributed to an increase in impairment indicators for many businesses. In this article David Stears outlines key risks and factors to look out for when performing impairment tests: https://lnkd.in/eTHuitJR

🐀 Deal Announcement 👩🌾 Another deal in the pest control sector! US-based Rollins, Inc. (Orkin in the UK) finalised the acquisition of London-based Beaver Pest Control . Beaver has grown to become one of the UK’s largest regional pest control companies employing nearly 100 people in its pest, wildlife management and drainage proofing divisions. This deal is the third acquisition by Orkin in the UK this year and expands its number of employees to over 450. It also significantly increases its presence in London and the surrounding areas. The Buzzacott TS team, made up of Alex Judd, James Wood, Catherine Edwards, along with the tax team of Kazia Kruszewski and Catriona Soden, were delighted to provide financial and tax due diligence services.