Pictured above: (l-r) James Carnegie, Kerry Lane, Julian
Clough - RSM Tenon Midlands head of transaction services
RSM Tenon's Birmingham Transaction Services team has gone global
with a ground-breaking deal which enabled a private equity owned
engineering business based in Wolverhampton to buy a PLC-owned
components company with operations in England, Wales and the
USA.
The Shanghai head office of fasteners and fixings specialist PSM
International, part of a VC-backed group with operations all over
the world, appointed RSM Tenon to help its Bilston based operation
complete the £4.4m acquisition of BAS Components, a division
of TT Electronics plc, which has operations in Pembroke, in South
Wales, Sevenoaks in Kent and Youngstown, in Ohio.
The complex transaction saw RSM Tenon's expanding Birmingham
operation exploit the global reach of its own network as it
overcame international, cultural and procedural boundaries to
deliver a transaction which combined both financial due diligence
and advisory work.
James Carnegie, associate director in RSM Tenon's corporate
finance team, says he expects the PSM deal to be first of many
international transactions handled by the Birmingham office
"The complexities of this deal meant that it was a major
challenge by any measure," he said. "But it was also the perfect
way for us to demonstrate that RSM Tenon in Birmingham has the
experience, capacity and commitment to help clients exploit global
market opportunities."
While international transactions are often complicated by time
zones and language barriers, the truly global nature of the PSM
deal meant the RSM Tenon team also had to overcome cultural and
market differences.
"In deals like this you can often find that while the parties to
the transaction may have considerable experience of acquisitions
generally, they can still be unfamiliar with the procedures in
particular markets," said James. "In this case that meant we were
advising our client in the UK and China, fulfilling the an advisory
role to steer the process while also carrying out the financial due
diligence."
Carnegie joined RSM Tenon last year from the in-house M&A
team at a major distribution business and was able to bring his
experience from both sides of the table to bear in the six weeks it
took to complete the PSM transaction.
"This was a particularly fulfilling deal for me because we had
considerable scope to offer wide-ranging commercial advice about
the process, the technical issues and the accounting and tax
implications. They appreciated the continuity and the consistency
we were able to deliver," said James.
The transatlantic nature of the deal meant tax advice took on a
critical importance and it was here RSM Tenon was able to lever its
own global reach, the firm's Transaction Tax Team calling on
expertise in the UK and in US network firm RSM McGladrey to carry
out the tax due diligence on BAS Components' Ohio operation.
James Carnegie is one of a number of high profile corporate
finance hires at RSM Tenon's Birmingham offices over the last few
months. He joined at the same time as Kerry Lane, an experienced
corporate finance senior manager, and shortly after the arrival of
lead advisory director Steve Thornhill.
RSM Tenon's top-level recruitment drive signalled the firm's
ambition to raise its profile in the West Midlands corporate
finance market and James believes the PSM deal will be seen as a
significant step down that path.
He added: "This deal has enabled us to lay down a marker
and show West Midlands businesses that we can deliver a range and
depth of advice which allows them to think globally. We have an
ambitious and experienced team, we understand the complex demands
of cross-border activity and we can draw on the local market
knowledge of a global network to meet challenging timescales.
"I think this is going to be the first of many transactions like
this as we look to build on this success. We have a well-known and
respected team here and we're keen to help clients get themselves
in the right position to make the most of a recovering market."