Begbies Traynor is paying £2.75m to acquire Springboard Corporate Finance Ltd, a mid-market corporate finance practice which specialises in buy and sell-side deals in the UK and overseas, with expertise in proprietary deal origination
Operating from offices in Birmingham, London and Nottingham, in 2017 Springboard completed transactions totalling more than £225m and has a team of 15 professionals. It recorded pre-tax profits of £750,000 in its most recent financial year, to June 2017, on revenues of £2.3m.
The Springboard practice will continue to operate under its existing brand and the senior leadership, team and offices will remain unchanged.
Begbies Traynor said the current acquisition formed part of the group’s ambition to create a leading UK multi-disciplinary professional services consultancy, and follows its acquisition of Eddisons property consultancy in 2015.
Ric Traynor, chairman of Begbies Traynor Group, said: ‘The acquisition of Springboard is an important step for the group and gives us critical mass in the mid-market corporate finance arena. We will work with Springboard’s talented management team to grow their offering and proactively build a presence in more locations.
‘Additionally we see strong synergies with the Springboard corporate finance offering as it is complimentary to many of the group’s existing service lines. Both share a similar client base and range of intermediary relationships allowing for cross selling of new services to existing clients.’
Begbies will pay half of the initial £2.75m in cash and half through issuing 1.88m shares. A further £1.25m will be paid in cash to match Springboard’s cash balances on completion, while an additional £500,000 can be paid, subject to financial targets being achieved over the next five years.
Simon Ward, partner at Springboard, said: ‘The acquisition provides us with the resources to build our practice with greater pace and recruit high quality individuals who can enhance our offering to both existing and prospective clients.
‘With Begbies Traynor Group, we saw a management team who were fully supportive of our growth ambitions. We will now use that support and financial firepower to proactively grow our existing team, at all levels including new entry partner recruits as we look to build a significant national presence.’
Report by Pat Sweet
