
Grant Thornton completes hat-trick of US deals
Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Thames Valley Corporate Finance team has completed on three transactions to US private equity-backed companies within the first quarter of 2022, as activity levels continue to remain strong after a record 2021. The first of the three deals is the sale of international development consultancy IMC Worldwide, as it joins the […]
Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Thames Valley Corporate Finance team has completed on three transactions to US private equity-backed companies within the first quarter of 2022, as activity levels continue to remain strong after a record 2021.
The first of the three deals is the sale of international development consultancy IMC Worldwide, as it joins the DT Global family, a US leader in the international development market. In the UK, IMC Worldwide will retain its name and brand, expanding DT Global’s geographic reach and deepening the wider group’s expertise in infrastructure, climate change and other leading development issues.
“We are delighted to be joining DT Global and see this partnership to be an excellent opportunity for both organisations and all staff”, said Gavin English, Managing Director, IMC Worldwide.
He added “This coming together of two great international development companies creates a highly synergetic global unit. IMC Worldwide employees will become part of a rapidly growing, like-minded organisation and the DT Global family will gain from IMC Worldwide’s professional can-do work culture, strong client base, broad geographic spread, and extensive experience and knowledge in international development.”
The second deal saw global technology marketing agency bChannels sold to another private equity backed US-buyer The Channel Company.Headquarted in Oxford, bChannels provides digital marketing services and customer engagement strategies to global technology companies, including AWS, Fujitsu, Microsoft and Xerox. With this strategic acquisition, premier provider of news, The Channel Company, will scale its full portfolio of services worldwide, adding new data-driven capabilities to expand partner networks and drive revenue.
Phil Gowing, Group CEO and Founder of bChannels, said: “bChannels and The Channel Company share a similar culture of client excellence, innovation, and deep technology channel expertise. We also share the vision to offer the most powerful suite of services for the technology industry in any market across the globe.”
Third, and finally, Grant Thornton advised on the sale of the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC) – a biologics development and manufacturing facility currently under construction near Oxford – to biopharma, cell, gene and consumer health partners Catalent.
The US firm plans to invest up to £120m to complete the building of the facility and equip it with state-of-the-art capabilities for the development and manufacture of biologic therapies and vaccines, with more than 400 jobs to be created.
“This deal ensures the VMIC site, when completed, will stay true to the original purpose of strengthening the U.K.’s vaccine manufacturing capability by bringing innovation to the sector and getting more vaccines to the clinic,” said Professor Robin Shattock, Chair of the Board of Directors of VMIC.
Nigel Le Bas, Corporate Finance Director at Grant Thornton, said: “Last year, at Grant Thornton we noted a marked uptick in overseas trade buyers, especially from the US, acquiring UK assets and competing very strongly with private equity. We are continuing to see these trends in the first quarter of 2022.
Gareth Davies, Corporate Finance Director, TMT, at Grant Thornton, said: “The cluster of the UK’s fast growing and innovative mid-market technology focused businesses continues to grow at an exponential rate, and with it, the interest from international buyers and private equity, that shows little sign of wavering. This continues to provide a strong pipeline of activity as Grant Thornton’s Corporate Finance team looks forward to the next quarter.”
More in Finance

Customers pay the price as volatile supply chains pressure mid-market
Research from Grant Thornton UK LLP’s latest Business Outlook Tracker research, which looks specifically at 370 leaders of businesses with a supply chain, shows that over half (52%) are finding it harder to operate their business today, compared to 12 months ago. To manage cost pressures, 61% of respondents said that their suppliers have agreed […]

PayPoint announces investment in Optus Homes
31 March, Welwyn Garden City: PayPoint has today announced a £750k investment in Optus Homes, a leading app for tenants to manage their home rental account. The deal will see the PayPoint Group make an investment in the company, building on the recently-signed commercial partnership positioning PayPoint as the preferred payment provider within the app. […]

Grant Thornton grows specialist transfer pricing team
Leading business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK LLP has promoted Dan Zaidman to Director within its expanding South England transfer pricing team. The appointment comes at a time of significant growth for the currently ten-strong Southern transfer pricing division, which is led by Grant Thornton partner Imran Khan, with other recent appointments including two new […]
Trending

B4 Sustainability Ecosystem: The Sustainable Business Handbook
One of the country’s leading experts on responsible business will be talking about how SMEs can address the issues around climate change while improving their businesses at a free lecture in the Unipart Conference Centre on 11th July at 6pm

Wellbeing at Work and Functional Resilience
Melissa Noton, co-Leader of B4’s Wellbeing Group, will be talking to the Head of Oxford Health’s Wellbeing department, Roz O’Neil, about staff pressures, their accumulative nature and the need to support a level of functional resilience, organisational agility and leadership.

CEO FOCUS: Gary Headland, Activate Learning
In the first of a series of regular interviews from CEO’s in and outside of the B4 community, we meet new Activate Learning CEO, Gary Headland.
From this author

Customers pay the price as volatile supply chains pressure mid-market
Research from Grant Thornton UK LLP’s latest Business Outlook Tracker research, which looks specifically at 370 leaders of businesses with a supply chain, shows that over half (52%) are finding it harder to operate their business today, compared to 12 months ago. To manage cost pressures, 61% of respondents said that their suppliers have agreed […]

Soaring demand sees Grant Thornton grow Thames Valley due diligence team
Leading business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK LLP has announced significant growth in its Thames Valley Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) team following a remarkable period of deals activity in the region. Grant Thornton’s Thames Valley TAS team, which performs due diligence tasks and gives related transaction advice during the acquisition, disposal, refinance or IPO […]

Mid-market looks to invest more in mental health
During Mental Health Awareness Week (9 -13 May) new research from Grant Thornton UK LLP shows that mid-market employers are looking to increase investment in supporting their people’s mental health over the next 12 months. From the 604 respondents to Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker* survey, around half (47%) intend to increase […]