Deal Activity 2021
It has been a great year for the corporate finance team at BSN. We have supported many clients achieve their lifetime ambitions of either selling the business they have lovingly built or undertake exciting management buyouts or similarly acquire new businesses to extend their product portfolios and capabilities.
We took time out to reflect at the end of June 2021 on the deals that we had supported clients with in the first 6 month period:
Chrysalis Loyalty sale to Autofutura Group
Chrysalis started its journey with BSN right from the word go when Jolyon Barker wandered into our offices with a dream of the global business he wanted to build. We have supported this dream throughout the 15 years that Chrysalis remained an independent business.
BSN were able to provide a fully outsourced finance function for Jolyon including bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and consolidated management accounts services (including liaison with Australian and US accountants). We continue to provide this service for the new owners until such time as they would like to move this service in house.
Throughout its life-cycle the business has required 2 iterations of growth funding – one from Frontier Development Capital and then latterly with Santander Growth Capital. Both rounds were led by BSN and executed successfully.
With the consolidation in the automotive tech sector, Jolyon felt it was time to support the business to move to its next stage of growth in a larger group and engaged BSN to support with a sales mandate piece of work in late 2020. Although COVID made this quite a challenge we led a successful tender process to identify a great strategic buyer for the business who were taken through to exclusivity. With Inflexion, GCA, Taylor Wessing and Deloitte advising the buyside it was a very detailed due diligence exercise but supported by Lodders and Parisi Tax, BSN were able to successfully navigate through the buyer’s requirements to lead a successful transaction that completed in February 2021.
Jolyon Barker commented on the relationship with BSN,
“We really value the longevity of our relationship with BSN. BSN have been with us right from the early stages of our development, providing well rounded, thorough and critical stewardship to ensure that the finance function at Chrysalis runs effectively.
More recently as our business has had growth opportunities, BSN have been fundamental in securing funding, reviewing acquisition opportunities both in the UK and overseas and finally in securing a new future for the business under Autofutura’s ownership. I profoundly thank Pippa and the team at BSN, they really care and went the extra mile to make sure everything was covered to facilitate a successful transaction.”
CloudThing sale to Kerv Group
Sharply followed by the Chrysalis transaction, another longstanding client of BSN’s – CloudThing Group had been approached by multiple parties given the excellent capability the business has and the rapid growth it has been experiencing.
BSN had completed a management buyout of the business in October 2020 so wanted to carefully review the strategic option of a full sale to an external party for their client to ensure this was the right course of action.
With careful consideration of each offer that had been received and negotiation with interested parties, BSN were able to secure a deal for CloudThing that worked for the founders of the business and the management team that were now leading the business.
It was a pleasure to work with Kerv Group on the deal who were advised by a combination of Equiteq, LDC, Pinsent Masons, Dains LLP, BDO and Armstrong. After a rapid but thorough due diligence process the deal was completed in May 2021.
In a similar vain to Chrysalis, BSN continue to support the buyers with an outsourced finance function that includes bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, P11ds and management accounting support. This includes liaison with the accountants and tax advisers in Bangalore, India.
Jay Neale (founder and former CEO of CloudThing) commented,
“BSN are just fantastic. They ran a very tight team of advisers alongside Thursfields and Parisi Tax. The communication between the CloudThing team and adviser team was brilliant and no stone was left unturned. We were able to be highly responsive and diligent to the buyers’ information requirements to enable a smooth and rapid transaction. Pippa and the team really care about their clients and will always push to get to the best and right answer. Many thanks for the team’s hard work, we couldn’t be happier with the service!”
Other notable transactions in 2021 where BSN have advised:
Simmonsigns Group acquisition of Solar Technologies (February 2021) – financial due diligence provided buy side
RTR Services sale to Dormaka Group (April 2021) – sell side advisory services provided
Consortium of investors acquiring of Dri-Pak group (April 2021) – buy side due diligence provided
Eight Days per Week Print Solutions Management buy out (May 2021) – buy side advisory services provided
WhichRate Group management buy out (May 2021) – sell side advisory services provided