International investment bank Altium has had a strong start to 2015, advising on 26 deals worth GBP5.4 billion.
The first half has seen a team, led by CEO Phil Adams, advise on the GBP1.9 billionn sale of UK retail business New Look to South African investment company Brait. Altium also acted as adviser to CVC Capital Partners on the purchase of Douglas, Europe’s leading specialist retailer of beauty and personal care products, with revenues of circa GBP1.8 billion.
The firm’s UK offices were very active during the period, completing nine deals. Key deals in addition to New Look included the GBP303.7 million sale of casual dining chain Prezzo to TPG Capital and the sale of a majority stake in sofa.com to CBPE Capital.
Altium has again seen very high levels of activity in the technology, consumer and eCommerce sectors.
Phil Adams (pictured), Chief Executive at Altium, says: “It has been a really strong start to 2015 and we’ve advised on some of the largest and most high-profile transactions of the year so far, both domestically and overseas.
“We continue to focus on working with great entrepreneurs, high growth corporates and major private equity firms. Our average deal size has increased materially in the last few years to over GBP100 million and over 80 per cent of our deals are now acting as lead adviser to the vendors of businesses.
“With a healthy pipeline of deals for the remainder of the year, 2015 promises to be one of the most successful for the firm and we are confident of maintaining our momentum as our sector focused, international cross-border approach continues to be increasingly important to our clients.”
