National deal will give boost to SMEs

A LANDMARK deal will allow North East SMEs access to corporate finance services previously reserved for heavyweight blue-chip firms.

National organisation The Corporate Finance Network (CFN) has spread its reach into the North East by signing up its first and only partner in the region, Newcastle-based RMT Corporate Finance.

The CFN is built on a network of regional partners across the country which specialises in raising finance for businesses and buying and selling companies.

Partners of the group – which has completed around 180 deals worth £220m in the last three years – can offer their clients the same standard of corporate finance services that are usually only accessible to large corporates.

SMEs on RMT’s books will now be able to conduct a level of corporate finance research – to identify new acquisition targets or potential suitors – not available to other independent practices. The closest CFN partners to the Gosforth-headquartered business are in York and in Scotland.

Maxine Pott, head of corporate finance at RMT, said: “As a busy, regional corporate finance team, we are always looking for ways to make our services more efficient and effective for our clients.

“We will gain access to many specialised resources and contacts by being a member of Corporate Finance Network, and we believe this will give us all the additional benefits that are normally only enjoyed by the largest, national firms in the UK, thereby giving us an advantage over our regional counterparts.”

Kirsty McGregor, chairman of CFN, said: “I’m delighted that RMT has been appointed to represent us in the North East.

“They have been on my radar for several years, and this market is a key area where we needed to appoint the best firm to protect our brand for being the experts in SME corporate finance advice.

I’m looking forward to sharing our resources with Maxine and her team, to further enhance the growth of their corporate finance service.”

RMT says acquisitive North East firms will be able to identify sectors which are particularly active M&A markets and tap into an in-depth benchmarking research function – the likes of which are relied upon by multi-national empires with multi-million pound revenue streams.

The CFN agreement also means that RMT clients will have exclusive access to training programmes on MBOs and exit strategies which are run by renowned corporate finance gurus.