Date: Thu 4th March, 2010
Venue: Blackburn Rovers Football Club, Jack Walker Stand, Ewood Park, Blackburn, BB2 4JF
The past year has been one to forget for many in the dealmaking community, but that didn’t stop more than 200 advisers, funders and entrepreneurs gathering at Blackburn Rovers’ Ewood Park ground in early March to celebrate the deals that got away and look ahead to better times.
Rob Kenmare from Moore & Smalley was one of the big winners on the night, taking home the Dealmaker of the Year accolade for the second time in three years. The win capped a good night for Moore & Smalley, with the firm also picking up the Corporate Finance Advisory Team of the Year award.
Speaking after receiving his award, Kenmare had some encouraging words for the corporate finance community in the region: “This year will be better than last because it has to be. We’re certainly starting to see positive signs, and it’s clear that confidence is returning. The corporate finance community in Lancashire stayed sensible when there was a lot of madness around, and I think that has served us well.”
Kenmare and his team advised on nine deals during the year, including Enterprise’s acquisition of the power services division of Bethell Group, which was named Deal of the Year. The acquisition took Enterprise’s power division annual turnover to more than £100m and gave it the critical size to bid for larger, integrated contracts, now the norm throughout the utility industry. The deal also saw 450 Bethell employees transfer to Enterprise.
Other winners included Lancashire County Council’s Rosebud Fund, which is supported by EV. The fund scooped the Fund of the Year award for the third time running, while the acquisition of Safe Business Services by Blackpool-based Danbro was named Small Deal of the Year.
Mohsin Issa, who co-founded Euro Garages in 2001 with his brother Zuber from a single forecourt in Bury, was named Lancashire’s Entrepreneur of the Year. He has presided over a business that is now the UK’s fastest-growing operator of petrol forecourts and convenience retail outlets and the second largest independent chain, with a 78-strong portfolio of sites based in the North West and Midlands.
Pierce Corporate Finance also took home three awards. The firm’s chairman Graham Boyes was named Personality of the Year and senior manager Tim Mills named Young Dealmaker of the Year. It also won the Turnaround Team of the Year. Mills said: “2010 won’t be easy, but we will come out of this eventually. We never give up here in Lancashire.”
