At the recent M&A Worldwide Rainmaker Summit, the sale of Burnhart Holdings (trading as WEC Group) to Amari UK Inc. won the vote for the M&A Worldwide Deal of the Year, against spirited competition from three other cross-border deals. FOCUS represented the transaction in the U.S. and introduced the transaction to the buyer, which is owned by a US-based investor.
FOCUS bankers Jorge Maceyras and John Slater joined Brian Higgins of Rickett Mitchell, Manchester UK, in accepting the award on behalf of the FOCUS Advanced Manufacturing & Automation Team.
FOCUS, Active M&A, Aeternus, MBA Capital, and Morgen Evan all assisted in the pitch process in the key global markets for metal products manufacturing, providing feedback on the information memorandum and helping in the active marketing phase. Several other M&A Worldwide members rounded out the global coverage for the transaction.
FOCUS Helps Valuation Increase Significantly
Among the factors sealing the win was the size of the transaction, largest to date for a cross-border deal originated by M&A Worldwide members. As a result of the competitive global process created through the M&A Worldwide network, the ultimate purchase price achieved was roughly one third higher than the offers initially received from home country bidders.
Other challenges included a complex shareholding structure with many minority shareholdings in subsidiaries and no overall shareholder’s agreement to define how a sale of the group would be shared amongst all shareholders.
Cooperation Between M&A Worldwide Members Definitely Led to a Better Result for the Seller/Buyer
FOCUS created a robust target list of US strategic and financial buyers and pursued extensive networking efforts to expand the horizons of the search. Through this process, FOCUS identified the ultimate investors behind Amari UK Inc. (a midwestern family office), providing the ideal buyer for WEC. This enabled the current management team to remain in day-to-day control of WEC while cashing in their investment in full.
M&A Worldwide Advanced Manufacturing & Automation Group to Benefit from WEC Group Deal
The experience gained from this combined effort will be applied to improve the M&A Worldwide approach to supporting significant cross-border sell side opportunities. A major goal of M&A Worldwide is for the Advanced Manufacturing & Automation Group to use these lessons learned to generate a coordinated approach for globally marketed sell side and buy side opportunities.
With an investment banking career spanning over four decades, Slater has amassed extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate finance, having successfully managed over 200 transactions, with a cumulative value exceeding $3 billion. His early career was marked by practicing business law, where he concentrated on financial transactions, securities, and tax-related matters.
While Slater’s industry experience is broad, he now follows his passion for the American industrial renaissance, devoting his energy to manufacturing, distribution logistics, aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automation, information technology, and related business services. Slater has a notable track record in the Precision Manufacturing sector, particularly in Precision Machining and Metalworking, having completed more than twenty transactions in the sector in recent years. He views this industry as highly fragmented and ripe for consolidation.
His interest extends to firms supplying the digital tools needed for the automation of manufacturing and the supporting supply chain, where he has worked with a number of firms involved in designing and implementing productivity solutions. These solutions encompass Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials, Automation Integration, Industry 4.0 software, and Robotics.
Slater’s academic background includes an AB degree in Economics from Princeton University and a JD degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He is FINRA registered and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
