Dains Corporate Finance provides due diligence services to Frontier Development Capital in support of the MBO of Premier Support Services

Deal summary

The Dains Corporate Finance team has recently undertaken financial due diligence for Frontier Development Capital (“FDC”) in support of their investment in the multi-million pound management buy-out of Premier Support Services (“Premier”).

Premier secured the funding from FDC to support the incumbent managing director Andrew Walker to become a majority shareholder alongside the management team, which includes Martin Holt, Danielle Parker and Tom Chatwin.

Headquartered in Birmingham, Premier provides commercial cleaning, building maintenance and security services. It operates nationally with offices in Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh and London, and employs 1,600 people. The firm currently holds a multi-sector client portfolio, including Savills, Whitbread and the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure.

Andrew Walker said: "Our dedicated Premier people are the core of our business and are passionate about the services we provide to our customers throughout the UK. These past 18 months has seen the business diversify its service offering, working collaboratively with our customers to deliver a flexible, professional and reliable service, allowing our customers the time to focus on their core business during the pandemic.

"FDC worked closely with us to structure an investment that is right for our business and its customers. It will enable us to continue to invest in innovative solutions and help our Premier people to continue to make a difference."

The difference we made

Rob Wilson and Roy Farmer of Dains LLP undertook the financial due diligence on Premier on behalf of FDC.  The due diligence included a review of Premier’s historic financial performance, an in-depth analysis of how the business mitigated the impact of Covid, a review of recent balance sheet and working capital trends and an interrogation of the financial projections.

What the client said

Simon Kelsall of FDC said: “Dains was appointed to undertake the financial due diligence on our investment in Premier. They targeted the key potential issues identified early in the process and kept FDC fully appraised as they completed their analysis of the business. Overall, a smooth process with a succinct summary report to conclude it. Our thanks to all involved.”

What we said

Rob Wilson of Dains LLP said “It was great to be able to work with FDC once again, having provided due diligence services to them on previous transactions. We conducted a focused due diligence exercise which concentrated on the key issues that were relevant to FDC and the transaction. We look forward to working with FDC again in the future.”