Date: Thu 5th February, 2009
Venue:
Further snowfalls didn’t stop more than 250 financiers from across the Home Counties converging on Gatwick’s Effingham Park Hotel at the start of February 2009 to congratulate the cream of their industry at Insider’s third South East Dealmakers Awards, compèred by former cricketer Chris Cowdrey.
It was Grant Thornton’s night as the firm walked away with the Corporate Finance Team award and the prized individual Dealmaker and Corporate Financier titles courtesy of Rupert Rawcliffe.
There was also double success for Stevens & Bolton, which continued its dominance of the legal categories, and for HSBC, which shrugged off the gloom in the banking sector by taking both banking awards. Meanwhile, the Deal of the Year award went to the management buyout of James Villa Holidays.
There was a new name on the South East Dealmaker hall of fame as Rawcliffe ran out a resounding winner in this prized category. Rawcliffe himself was sadly on holiday in Florida and missed his big night, but in his absence his award was collected by colleague Stuart Stepney, who said: "2008 really was a year of two halves, but as a firm we really knuckled down and the strength of our team brought us through. In the present market it's all about being creative."
The management buyout of James Villa, led by chief executive Tony Wheble, was a clear winner in the Deal of the Year category. Advisers from Bank of Scotland, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Meta Corporate Finance were among those who worked on the deal.
Also shortlisted was the acquisition of fruit supplier Greencell by Westfalia and Hillcrest Care’s acquisition of the Hillingdon Manor Group, a London school that provides specialist education for children.
Insider’s Jim Pendrill applauded guests for their continued fantastic support of the dinner in such tough economic times. “The business world cannot just grind to a halt and dealmakers need to be getting out there and striking up conversations in readiness for the market return, just as they are doing tonight,” he said.
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