Leonard Curtis has sold a majority stake in its business to asset manager Pollen Street Capital.
The Manchester-headquartered firm, founded more than 30 years ago, is a specialist in providing restructuring, legal, funding, M&A advisory and business services to SMEs and corporates.
It has a strong national footprint and has expanded rapidly through organic growth, geographical expansion and acquisitions, resulting in headcount increasing to over 330 employees across 30 offices.
The business has a well-established referral community throughout the business services industry, including its own ‘Lifecycle’ network, which enables over 3,000 regional accountancy practices to help their clients by accessing support, advice and solutions to financial and operational issues.
The group will continue to be led by current CEO Dan Booth and Pollen Street’s investment will accelerate growth across the platform through product expansion, technology and M&A.
Pollen Street was supported by Manchester-headquartered private credit investor TDC, and the deal will see the successful exit for family investment office Arete Capital Partners and SVELLA Plc, who took a significant stake in August 2021.
“Leonard Curtis is a high-quality business with a proven model, experienced leadership, and has demonstrated strong organic growth in the UK and offshore,“ said Jonathan Guest, investment director at Pollen Street Capital.
“We are proud of our track record of supporting fast-growing players in the financial and business services ecosystems and are looking forward to partnering with the team for the next stage of Leonard Curtis’s growth, as it diversifies and scales organically, and further consolidates the fragmented UK professional services market.”
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Leonard Curtis CEO Dan Booth commented: “The partnership and investment from Pollen Street Capital, together with support from TDC, will allow the business to move forward and better execute our plans to grow and develop the group.
“We have our sights on building a business that is sustainable for many years to come and to represent something that we can all be proud to be a part of.
“None of this would be possible without the hard work, commitment and brilliance of our people. We are building something very special here, and I truly hope we all continue this journey together to be better every day. In years to come, we all want to be able to look back and know we played a positive part.”
Gary Davison, managing partner at TDC, added: “Leonard Curtis is a true Manchester success story, having expanded its presence across the UK and into new service lines. Together with Pollen Street, this deal will help to further accelerate this growth, with a strong management team in place to deliver on some ambitious strategic plans.
“As a Manchester-headquartered business ourselves, we’re particularly proud to be supporting a business on our own patch, uplifting our region while driving UK-wide growth.”
Advisors for Leonard Curtis included KPMG Corporate Finance, Hill Dickinson on legals, PwC on tax, BDO on financial due diligence and Graph on commercial due diligence.
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