Endless is delighted to have two of its deals going head to head for 'Deal of the Year' at the South Yorkshire Dealmakers Awards in June.
Shortlisted for Deal of the Year is the acquisition by Indian engineering conglomerate Hindustand Dorr Oliver (HDO) of Sheffield's DavyMarkham, which designs and manufactures complex heavy engineering components - a business subject to a successful turnaround following an investment by Endless in 2007. Prior to its acquisition by Endless, the business had delivered over 20 years of losses for the vendor. The business was divested in February 2010, realising a 10.5x return.
The company is led by Kevin Parkin, one of the region's most respected manufacturing leaders, who remains with the business following the Endless' exit.
The second Endless deal on the shortlist is the acquisition of Vasanta, the largest wholesaler and distributor of stationery and associated office products in the UK and Ireland. Endless introduced £30m in new funding to the company as part of the complex acquisition in July 2009. Vasanta, which has a turnover of £500m, was formed in 2007 after the management buyouts of Kingfield Heath, ISA Group and Supplies Team.
The Vasanta Group had previously been subject to a buyout in 2007, which resulted in a highly leveraged balance sheet that was unsustainable following the collapse of the global economy in 2008 and the resultant general slowdown that followed. A significant loss of trade credit insurance in early 2009 prompted a cash crisis that led to the group’s lenders needing to attract a new equity investor in an extremely accelerated timeframe.
Endless completed the acquisition of Vasanta Group within two weeks of submitting its initial offer, demonstrating its capability to handle a highly complex, multi-stakeholder transaction in an expedited timeframe.
By making this investment in partnership with the group’s banking syndicate, Endless has significantly de-geared the company, reducing its debt by over £200 million and introducing £30 million of new funding. In doing so, Endless has put the company on a firm platform to stabilise the business, recover market share and restore profitable growth in the coming years.
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