Endless, a buyout and turnaround private equity firm based in the northern England county of Yorkshire, is expanding into Ireland with the appointment as senior advisers of John Kernohan a
Endless, a buyout and turnaround private equity firm based in the northern England county of Yorkshire, is expanding into Ireland with the appointment as senior advisers of John Kernohan and Richard Gillan, and has announced plans to open a London office in the near future.
Endless says it intends to work with companies throughout Ireland following the business model it has deployed from Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. The initial focus will be on investing in northern Ireland and adding value to medium-sized businesses that would benefit from private equity investment. The second phase of the expansion into Ireland will be to target the Dublin advisory and investment community.
Kernohan previously represented 3i on the boards of several high-profile portfolio companies and has experience in a wide range of investment and disposal transactions. In 2004 he returned to Ireland and, together with Gillan, bought out a local manufacturing company. As joint managing directors they restructured and expanded in to new markets, leading to the enhanced equity valuation realised by an exit in May.
Gillan trained as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Deloitte, for whom he worked in London, Luxembourg and Johannesburg. He has considerable corporate finance experience, having acted in significant acquisitions, disposals and finance-raising deals.
‘Richard and I are excited to be leading Endless into Ireland, where the demand for a buy-out fund with a success rate like Endless’s is evident,’ Kernohan says.
Endless partner Garry Wilson says: ‘We have long discussed our intention to expand into new territories, having identified considerable opportunity across a number of areas. This move into Ireland will further strengthen Endless’s foothold within the buyout and turnaround industry and will tackle the opportunity to broaden the understanding and capability of private equity to help businesses develop and grow in the region.
‘We are delighted to have secured John Kernohan and Richard Gillan to lead this crucial endeavour. Both will work closely with the members of Endless in the other regions, as well as our established adviser contacts in determining our future activity in the area.’
