Corporate finance firm IDJ has continued to find big deals to work on in a difficult marketplace.

Corporate finance firm IDJ has continued to find big deals to work on in a difficult marketplace.

Earlier last year, the Mayfair-based firm worked on the £147 million acquisition of UK drug testing business Concateno Plc by a US healthcare client. IDJ has worked for the client since 1996 on a wide variety of deals, both buy side and sell side.

The firm has 17 employees and focuses on deals between £20 million and £300 million. It was created back in 1971 when it worked on a bid for the legendary car-maker Aston Martin.

Although IDJ’s investor group was outbid in the auction, founder and chairman John Incledon reflects that he and his team ‘learnt a heck of a lot’. The experience appears to have been put to good use as the firm has ‘had a steady stream of deals in the small to mid-cap sector ever since’.

Incledon explains that IDJ has a long record of corporate finance success facilitating transatlantic deals and has a presence on both the East and West coasts. In the UK, IDJ offers a full range of services working on straight acquisitions, mergers, public to private transactions, fund raisings, management buy-outs and management buy-ins.

Over the years Incledon and his team have built an extensive network of relationships, including business angels and venture capitalists. 

One such deal is the current fundraising for St Albans-based PrivateFly, a website for hiring private jets. The money raised in this financing will primarily be used to hire more staff to develop PrivateFly’s fast expanding Europe-wide service. 

Share alike

Interestingly, IDJ has a long standing policy of taking all or part of its compensation in shares rather than a flat fee. Like every firm, it must pay most of its bills in cash and yet it has always been willing to accept shares as part of its compensation and this extends right back to the ultimately abortive Aston Martin deal nearly forty-years ago.

Incledon states that IDJ’s preference is to be involved at an early stage in the deal process. ‘We attend the very first meeting, and we’re there for all of them, because often there are people who will benefit if the deal craters at the last minute.’

The viciousness of the downturn has created the ‘worst equity market I’ve seen since 1974’, says Incledon, but given IDJ’s history and long list of relationships built up over the years, there’s every reason to expect the firm to keep pulling off significant deals.

For further information:

John Incledon, Chairman
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7355 1200
Email: jdincledon@idj.co.uk
Website: www.idj.co.uk