Insider can reveal the shortlists for this year’s Northern Ireland Dealmakers Awards, with the prestigious event celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2020.
The annual awards recognise the high quality professional advisory firms and funders in Northern Ireland and some of the best deals in which they were involved. The winners in the nine award categories will be revealed at the gala dinner event that is taking place at the Europa Hotel, Belfast on 12 March 2020.
Insider is marking the tenth anniversary of the award by presenting a special Deal of the Decade Award. A shortlist was drawn up, following online nominations, and presented to the judges who selected the winner. The winning Deal of the Decade will be announced at the awards dinner.
Philip Cunliffe, Insider’s regional business editor, who chaired the judging panel, said: "In this special year for the awards we were really delighted with the number and quality of the entry submissions we received in all the award categories.
"The judges had some very difficult choices to make, just to select the shortlists, let alone the winners. We’re now very much looking forward to the awards dinner when we’ll be celebrating 10 years of successful dealmaking in Northern Ireland."
The shortlists are:
Corporate Finance Advisory Firm of the Year
Shortlisted:
Keenan Corporate Finance
Grant Thornton (NI)
HannawayCA Corporate Finance
BDO
KPMG Ireland
Bank-funded Deal of the Year
Shortlisted:
Danske Bank-funded investment in Almac Group (Advisers: A&L Goodbody; PwC)
AIB NI-funded acquisition of Silverwood Business Park (Advisers: Johns Elliot; Cleaver Fulton Rankin)
Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank-funded acquisition of Autoline Insurance by Prestige Insurance Group (Advisers: Tughans, A&L Goodbody, Carson McDowell, KPMG; EY)
AIB-funded acquisition of Gruig wind farm by Foresight Group (Advisers: Deloitte; Pinsent Masons; TLT NI; A&L Goodbody)
Corporate Law Firm of the Year
Shortlisted:
TLT NI LLP
Cleaver Fulton Rankin
Mills Selig
Tughans
Millar McCall Wylie LLP
Carson McDowell
Emerging Dealmaker of the Year
Shortlisted:
Michael Hamill, Pinsent Masons
Catherine Irvine, A&L Goodbody
Grant Edwards, TLT NI LLP
Glenn Watterson, Mills Selig
Jenna Mairs, WhiteRock Finance
Private Equity/Venture Capital Deal the Year
Shortlisted:
Syndicate investment in BrainWaveBank (Advisers: TLT NI; Philip Hare Associates; A&L Goodbody; Tughans)
Investment in 3fivetwo Group by Foresight Group and 57 Stars LLC (Advisers: KPMG; Baker Tilly Mooney Moore; Tughans; HNH Group; A&L Goodbody)
Acquisition and investment in Granville EcoPark by Bio Capital and B9 Gas (Advisers: Ashurst; Orrick; A&L Goodbody; BDO; Tughans)
Investment Axial3D by Imprimatur Capital Management (A&L Goodbody; Tughans; Carson McDowell)
Investment in Plotbox by Par Equity and Ironbridge Capital Partners (Advisers: Tughans; Arthur Cox)
Deal of the Year (below £2.5m)
Shortlisted:
Investment in Datactics by Par Equity and Kernel Capital (Advisers: TLT NI; Philip Hare Associates; A&L Goodbody; Tughans)
Growth finance for Cirdan Imaging (Funder and advisers: WhiteRock Finance; Millar McCall Wylie; A&L Goodbody; PwC)
Investment in Kanisi (t/a Rotor) by Edition Capital Investments (Advisers: Millar McCall Wylie; Shoosmiths)
MBO of Northern Tree Services (Advisers: HannawayCA; TLT NI)
Growth finance for Davison Canners (Funder: HSBC)
Deal of the Year (£2.5m - £10m)
Shortlisted:
Investment in Upstream Working Capital and Upstream Trade Finance (Advisers: Tughans; Grant Thornton)
Acquisition of business and assets of Teva (NI) by Milicent Pharma (NI) (Advisers: Cleaver Fulton Rankin; Pinsent Masons)
Funding for Mash Direct (Funder and advisers: HSBC; Colliers; TLT NI; McLaine & Co Solicitors)
Investment in Kingsbridge Healthcare Group by Foresight Group (Advisers: HNH; Tughans; A&L Goodbody)
Acquisition of Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries (Advisers: Cleaver Fulton Rankin; Tughans)
Deal of the Year (above £10m)
Shortlisted:
MBO of Texthelp supported by LDC (Advisers: Pinsent Masons; Gately PLC; Mills Selig; Jefferies International)
Funding for Radius Housing Association (Funder and advisers: Barclays; Pinsent Masons; Wilson Nesbitt)
Sale of McCloskey Engineering to Metso Corporation (Advisers: Stikeman Elliott LLP; A&L Goodbody; ASM)
Acquisition of Wrightbus by Bamford Bus Company (Advisers: Mills Selig; PwC; Deloitte; Tughans)
Sale of Ballylumford and Kilroot Power Stations to EPH (Advisers: John McKee Solicitors; Pinsent Masons)
Sale of Novosco Group to Cancom Ltd (Advisers: KPMG; Mills Selig; Livingstone; Tughans)
Dealmaker of the Year
Shortlisted:
Chris Guy, Mills Selig
John McGuckian, Tughans
David McCurley, WhiteRock Finance
Alan Bisset, John McKee Solicitors
Mark Thompson, A&L Goodbody
Deal of the Decade
The winner will be announced at the awards dinner on 12th March 2020.
Tickets for the awards dinner are selling fast, so to guarantee your places please go to https://www.insidermedia.com/event/northern-ireland-dealmakers-awards-2020/tickets or contact Laura Heaton at [email protected] or call 0161 907 9758.
