Commercial Due Diligence Provider of the Year
Armstrong
In 2021/22, Armstrong continued to build on its reputation for independence, integrity and clear commercial advice.
We worked with 48 organisations (supporting 69 transactions) providing commercial and strategic input to their decision-making process. We provided insight on each company’s resilience to the pandemic and assessed snapback potential given uncertain market demand and competitive dynamics.
Our work is based on our deep understanding of each company and its market, its value proposition and differentiators, and the commercial opportunity. This is a result of our detailed, forensic customer referencing, blended with granular analysis of a company’s internal data and external market data.
This year we have seen strong demand for our new value creation service which provides complementary hands-on support for management teams immediately post-deal both to maximise ROI and ensure management teams have the best possible control over the business during challenging times.
The quality and commercial experience of our people drives Armstrong’s success. Over the judging period we have grown the team by 16 people, investing in talent across our specialisms.
Our plan for the rest of 2022 is that we will continue to tell our clients where their businesses are now, what they could be in the future and how to get there.
CIL Management Consultants
CIL is the premier commercial due diligence provider in the UK and one of the leading providers in Europe. Over the past 12 months, we have advised on a record 260 due diligence engagements across both buy- and sell-side – up 24% year on year. CIL has four offices across Europe and the US, and is preparing to open a Paris office in September 2022. This level of scale affords us a unique position. We are big enough to display deep knowledge in a broad range of niche specialisms, and small enough to know that strong client relationships generate deeper insights. We provide true cross-sector collaboration across our nine dedicated sector practices, which allows us to ask the right questions, challenge preconceived ideas and provide actionable, evidence-based insight. During the judging period we completed 260 due diligences worldwide with an aggregate deal value exceeding £9bn, 200 of these in the UK. We also grew our client base, with nearly 28% of our order book being made up of new private equity clients.
Fairgrove
Fairgrove grew fees by 25% during the judging period and was the #2 player in the UK&I CDD market by volume of completed transactions (buyouts, expansion, secondaries) for the fourth consecutive year, according to Unquote’s adviser league tables. Our relative market share by volume in the judging period was 0.6x, which we achieved with only 0.1x the headcount of the #1 player, demonstrating our ability to punch well above our weight. We have been trading for c.8-10 years fewer than the #1 and #3 players, establishing ourselves as a trusted and respected brand in an exceptionally short timeframe, which is testament to the enduring quality of our work. We believe our entrepreneurial flair (evident in the speed with which we have penetrated the market), deserves recognition for this year’s award, as we continue to provide the UK&I private equity market with an additional and genuinely high-quality CDD option. We executed 46 private equity assignments in the judging period with an estimated aggregate value of at least £1.2bn. Innovations included the development of a proprietary methodology for estimating vendor market shares by category on Amazon.