The Birmingham office of Clearwater Corporate Finance has advised on the cross-border acquisition of a majority stake in UK-based care products firm Hallam Beauty by a Swiss firm.
Mibelle, a subsidiary of Swiss conglomerate Migros, acquired the stake in the £37 million turnover business for an undisclosed sum to build its presence in the UK.
Hallam, itself a subsidiary of Sheffield-based GRI Group, is one of the largest manufacturers of its kind in the country and supplies its white-label hair, skin, sun and babycare products to a number of leading UK supermarket chains.
The firm, which also formulates and manufactures products for private-label hair and bodycare brands in the UK, has enjoyed strong organic growth since it was bought out of administration by GRI Group in 2005.
Clearwater worked with Swiss firm Kurmann Partners, which along with Clearwater is a member of the international mergers and acquisition organisations IMAP, and analysed the UK cosmetic products market to identify potential acquisition targets for Mibelle.
Clearwater originated the deal and facilitated Mibelle’s introduction to the vendor GRI Group.
Andy Moore, partner at Clearwater in Birmingham, said: "In order to identify the best acquisition targets for multi-national companies, cross-border collaboration between buy-side advisers is essential. Throughout 2010, we expect to see an increasing volume of cross-border deal activity.
"We will continue to work closely with our international IMAP offices to advise our clients in the UK and overseas on cross-border deals – utilising local market knowledge to engage with companies and overcome the barriers to completing deals."
Mibelle’s acquisition of Hallam is the third cross-border advisory role for Clearwater in the last six months.
