Sovereign buys SJD and Nixon

Ellie Pullen
22 September 2014

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Sovereign Capital has acquired UK accountancy businesses SJD Accountancy and Nixon Williams for ТЃ100m.

Sovereign will combine the two assets to form what it claims will be the largest accountancy group for the contractor and SME markets in the UK. The two businesses will continue to operate independently under their brands.

The deal also included the appointments of a group chairman, group CEO and group CFO. Former BDO International CEO Jeremy Newman has joined as group chairman, while Simon Curry has become group CEO and Kevin Budge has been appointed group CFO.

Furthermore, SJD managing director Claire Johnson has been appointed as group operations director and SJD's Julian Carnell has taken the role of group sales and marketing director.

The deal is believed to see the founders of both businesses exit or partially exit. Sovereign declined to comment on whether the transaction was structured as a management buyout or BIMBO (buy-in management buyout).

Last month, Sovereign held a final close for its latest fund, Sovereign Capital IV, on its £395m hard-cap after just four months on the road.

Earlier this month, the firm acquired Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service, a UK-based veterinary group, via its recently closed fund.

Debt
BlueBay provided a debt package for the deal.

Company
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Hemel Hempstead, SJD provides limited company accountancy services to contractors, freelancers and SMEs. It claims to have 14,000 clients.

Nixon provides accounting services to freelance contractors, consultants and interim managers, and claims to have 4,000 clients. The business was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Blackpool.

The two businesses collectively employ 280 staff.

People
Simon Dolan is the founder of SJD. Alan Williams and Andy Nixon are the founders and directors of Nixon. Sovereign director Jeremy Morgan, partner Matthew Owen, investment director Rob King and investment manager Peter Shaw worked on the deal.

Advisers
Equity - Argyll Partners, Adrian Richmond, Payam Keyghobadi, Alistair Lee (Corporate finance, debt); Grant Thornton, Pete Dawson, Vishal Jain, David Hewitt Michael Gilmore (Financial due diligence, tax); EY, Harry Nicholson, Andrew Hawkins, John Chaplin (Commercial due diligence); Eversheds, Mark Beardmore, Catherine Eley, Patrick Davis (Legal); Vista, Peter Warburton, Gavin Ruben (Insurance due diligence).