Business sales see Hazlewoods handle £422 million of deals so far in 2021

Deals totalling £422 million have been handled by Hazlewoods’ corporate finance team in the first half of 2021 – growing by more than 17 per cent on the previous year.

So far this year the Gloucestershire-based firm of accountants has completed 67 deals – including everything from private equity houses and corporate acquirers seeking to strengthen their portfolios to business owners retiring or moving on to pastures new.

The Staverton-headquartered firm is also seeing more business owners wanting to sell via an employee ownership trust, which gives a level of staff ownership and sellers the benefits of a zero per cent tax rate.

Paul Fussell, corporate finance partner, said: ‘There has been a bounce back in 2021 with some strong projects in the pipeline.

‘We are seeing strong demand across numerous sectors, particularly for tech-enabled businesses and those with a strong brand and intellectual property.

‘We are also anticipating an increasing number of management buyouts, and sales to employee ownership trusts, as owner managers want to retire and leave their business in safe hands.’

As a result of the increase in demands on its services, and ‘a number of large and complex projects’ Mr Fussell’s team has grown to 38 dedicated advisers, including five partners.

In 2020, Hazlewoods was ranked as the UK’s sixth most active adviser in Experian’s 2020 Mergers & Acquisitions report.

This article is part of SoGlos’s #BackToBusinessGlos campaign – made possible by Hazlewoods, Aston Lark and BPE – to champion Gloucestershire businesses as the county recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. For more information, see soglos.com/backtobusinessglos