South: Grant Thornton tops finance leader board

Grant Thornton UK LLP has been named as the number one financial advisers to UK companies for the third year in a row.

The firm advised on 136 deals in 2014 and outperformed its competitors, recording a 3.8% increase on deals recorded in 2013, compared to the 2% uptick in total volume of industry deals last year.

It remained particularly active in the technology, media and communications (TMC) and business support services sectors, accounting for around 17% and 14% of the total deals respectively.

The volume of deals involving private equity institutions remained stable for the firm, representing over 40% of disclosed deals, and deals involving international transactions accounted for almost a quarter (24%).

Paul Stout, director of corporate finance in the Southampton office, said: “The national statistics mirror what we are experiencing locally, with a strong deal flow in 2014 and a growing pipeline of opportunities in 2015.

“This reflects the fact that the number of funding sources continue to grow and companies are increasingly confident in making acquisitions.”

Signalling the continued improvements in economic recovery, aggregate deal value for the entire market also increased in 2014, reaching £289 billion. This equated to an increase of 5.6% on the total value of deals recorded in 2013.

Norman Armstrong, partner at the Southampton office, said: “It’s a great accomplishment to have retained our position as the number one financial adviser to UK companies. This accolade is testament to the insightful, relentless and focused work of the team.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen deal activity across a diverse spectrum of businesses in a variety of sectors. This suggests the wider economic recovering is normalising and businesses are more confident of their prospects for the year ahead.”