A fine package
Bawtry Investments which owns Bawtry Carbon International instructed BHP Corporate Finance to identify suitable acquisition targets as part of its plan to build a significant industrial group. Accordingly, the initial work involved identifying a range of acquisition criteria followed by an intensive acquisition search. This generated a number of very interesting opportunities and resulted in several approaches being made to potential acquisitions, including the Nicholl Food Packaging group. This ultimately led to the acquisition by Bawtry Investments of the Nicholl Food Packaging group. The business specialises in producing foil containers and other food packaging products. Its turnover is approximately £60 million and it employs 300 people. It has its main manufacturing facility at Cannock in the West Midlands and is the largest producer and supplier of foil containers in the UK. It also has manufacturing plants in France and Germany together with operations in Belgium and the USA.
The role of BHP Corporate Finance in this transaction was responsibility for deal origination as well as corporate finance, deal structuring and tax advice.
Richard Barrick chairman of Bawtry Investments commented “This is the first of a number of acquisitions that we would like to make over the next few years. It fitted our key acquisition criteria as a substantial manufacturer with a good market position and opportunities to improve performance”. He continued “We had been working with a team, led by Stephen Ingram, at BHP Corporate Finance for about six months, identifying suitable acquisitions and are very pleased to have identified and completed our first acquisition in a relatively short period of time. Throughout the process, we noted the professional and pragmatic approach of the BHP Corporate Finance team combined with their commercial insights. In particular, we were impressed with the way that they helped us find solutions to a number of challenges that arose during the course of the transaction”.
Stephen Ingram, partner at BHP Corporate Finance, worked with a team led by John Longstaff (director), and included Kevin Davies (assistant director) and Graeme Davies (tax).
Stephen Ingram commented “It is always challenging to find quality businesses that match defined acquisition criteria. Our market intelligence and thorough approach to buyer research identified the Nicholl Food Packaging group as a potential target. Whilst there were a number of challenges during the course of the transaction we worked up solutions that overcame these. As a consequence our client has now completed its first acquisition”.