EMC triumphs at Dealmakers Awards ceremony

EMC Corporate Finance enjoyed a triumphant night at the 2014 Insider South East Dealmakers Awards.

Not only did we win one of the evening’s blue riband prizes – the highly prestigious Deal of the Year Award – but we were also shortlisted in three other categories at the glittering awards ceremony held at the Copthorne Hotel, Effingham Park, Crawley, on Thursday (6 Feb).

The annual Dealmakers Awards are among the most coveted in the corporate finance industry, with the winners and shortlisted firms having the satisfaction of knowing that they have been recognised by their professional peers.

The deal that won us the top award was the autumn sale of $100m freight forwarding and logistics company Bellville International Ltd to OIA Global of Portland, Oregon. We acted as lead advisors to the Bellville directors, helping them to negotiate the deal and advising them on all commercial matters as the transaction progressed.  Professional support was provided by accountants Baker Tilly and lawyers Kerman & Co.

It was the largest and most complex of a dozen major deals we completed last year, and involved more than 20 locations around the world. Despite that, we managed to get the deal completed within just 90 days of the signing of the Letter of Intent and 100 days of the initial contact with the buyer – a record in our 25 years of advising on transactions.

The EMC team in the Bellville deal was led by our CEO Nik Askaroff who was among the finalists in both the Corporate Finance Adviser of the Year and Dealmaker of the Year categories. We were also among the five runners-up in the Corporate Finance Advisory Team if the Year Award alongside such major firms as BDO and Grant Thornton.

The Deal of the Year award continues a run of success which in the last few months has also seen EMC named the UK’s SME Corporate Finance Firm of the Year in Acquisition International Magazine’s prestigious Finance Awards and among the winners of AI’s M&A Awards.