Transaction

Pollen Street Capital acquired a majority stake in Leonard Curtis

Transaction

Pollen Street Capital acquired a majority stake in Leonard Curtis

Buy-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to Pollen Street Capital on its acquisition of a majority stake in Leonard Curtis

Sector

Business Services

Region

UK

We have advised Pollen Street Capital (Pollen Street) on its acquisition of a majority stake in Leonard Curtis, a leading corporate restructuring provider operating across the UK and offshore. Our combined team provided M&A and Debt Advisory support.

The multi-disciplinary professional services firm, which is headquartered in Manchester, has over 30 years’ experience providing restructuring, legal, funding, M&A advisory and other business services to SMEs and corporates. 

Leonard Curtis has built a trusted brand, strong national footprint and deep sector expertise, expanding rapidly through a combination of organic growth, geographical expansion and acquisitions. The business now has more than 330 professionals across 30 offices. The company 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 at every stage of their clients’ business lifecycle.

Pollen Street is a fast-growing and high-performing private capital asset manager. Established in 2013, the firm has built deep capability across the real estate, financial and business services sectors aligned with mega-trends shaping the future of the industry.

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.

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.

More about the process

Our M&A team provided a suite of buy-side services to Pollen Street to assist with their investment in Leonard Curtis, including deal structuring and negotiation, market intelligence, exit positioning and valuation support, whilst also managing the deal to a successful completion through regulatory clearances. 

Working seamlessly with our Debt Advisory team, we combined our transactional experience with funding capability to deliver an integrated solution. Our Debt Advisory team advised Pollen Street on its investment in Leonard Curtis, securing a bespoke financing package from TDC, which provided follow-on funding to support its growth strategy. This funding will enable the business to build on its strong market momentum, execute expansion plans, and scale operations, marking an exciting milestone in the delivery of its strategic objectives.

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Clearwater brought deep sector insight, seamless execution, and a collaborative approach that added real value throughout the process. Their ability to align strategic objectives with tailored financial solutions was instrumental in helping us secure this investment. We appreciated their professionalism, responsiveness, and commitment to delivering a successful outcome.

Leonard Curtis is a high-quality business with a proven model, experienced leadership, and has demonstrated strong organic growth in the UK and offshore. 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.

Jonathan Guest, Investment Director, Pollen Street
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This transaction marks a pivotal moment for a well-established player in the UK restructuring market. The investment from Pollen Street will help to unlock new opportunities for growth through the company’s extensive referrer base and execute on a pipeline of identified acquisition targets. We’re proud to have supported a partnership that aligns long-term strategic vision.

Mark Maunsell, Partner, Clearwater

This deal highlights the growing importance of tailored debt solutions in supporting strategic investments within the professional services sector. By aligning the capital structure with the group’s ambitious growth plans, we’ve helped lay the financial foundation for continued expansion, innovation and market leadership.

Richard Clark, Partner, Clearwater

The partnership and investment from Pollen Street Capital 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.

Daniel Booth, CEO, Leonard Curtis

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