Momentum Corporate Finance

WEST’S TOP MBO DEALMAKERS COMPLETE BEST FIRST-HALF WITH TRANSACTIONS TOTALLING £130 MILLION

Momentum Corporate Finance, the West‘s top-performing specialist advisers on management buyouts (MBOs) and disposals, has completed its best-yet six months‘ performance.

In the six months to June this year, Momentum completed four mid-market transactions with a combined value of more than £130 million – doubling the corresponding figure for the previous year.

In the first half of this year, Momentum handled the sale of UK fire systems specialists, Hall & Kay, to UTC Fire & Security of the USA; the MBO of Bristol-based Tocris Cookson, world leaders in small-molecule chemical products; the MBO of Williams Medical Supplies, the UK‘s leading supplier to the primary care market; and the sale of Rochford Thompson Equipment Ltd., the world‘s leading specialist in providing security technology for airlines and immigration authorities.

During the first six months of the previous year, the firm handled transactions totalling £65 million, including a £40 million venture capital exit for the owner-managers of national property maintenance company, Integral. This was voted “Deal of the Year” at the South West Dealmakers Awards.

According to one of Momentum‘s founding partners, Rob Crews: “In many ways, the recent sale of Hall & Kay is even bigger than last year‘s winning deal for Integral. Having arranged the MBO of Hall & Kay from Staveley Industries for £21 million less than two years ago, the value of that investment almost tripled through the recent sale.”

Having recently celebrated the firm‘s second birthday, Momentum already now delivers the West‘s most consistently high levels of major MBOs and company sales.

“Quite simply”, said Mr Crews, “that is our sole focus; we have no intention of diluting that focus by entering other areas of corporate finance activity”, he added.

Part of this policy includes the willingness of Momentum‘s partners to invest their own money in their clients‘ MBOs. Recent MBOs in which Momentum‘s partners, Tony Kenny and Rob Crews, have backed their own advice include Integral, Tocris, Origin and Hall & Kay.

ENDS 15th August 2007

For further information please contact David Sturgess, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349011 or email david@sturgessvandamme.co.uk

Photocaption: Rob Crews, Partner (left) and Tony Kenny, Partner (right)