James Painter nominated for Young Financier of the Year award

28-02-2019

Investment Manager, James Painter, has been nominated for Young Financier of the Year, at the Insider Media North West Young Professional Awards 2019.

James joined Palatine in February 2016 from KPMG Corporate finance and has been involved in several transactions at Palatine including the buyout of holiday park operator Verdant Leisure, the firm’s investment in TTC Group, a provider of road user and cycling education courses, and the investment in ZyroFisher, a leading distributor of cycling parts and accessories in the UK and Ireland.

The nomination comes after a successful year seeing James play an integral role in the entry and successful exit of Westleigh Partnerships, a leading provider of affordable residential property. The sale generated a 3x return and 96% IRR for Palatine and was the first exit from Fund III which closed in June 2015.

Whilst working with Westleigh, James built a strong rapport with the founder/executive chairman and wider management team who highly praised him for his support in their accelerated organic growth.

Chris Beighton, Chairman at Westleigh, said: “Westleigh’s experience having James on board has been nothing other than positive. He has supported management’s ambitious expansion plans for growth, and while always remaining diligent, he’s allowed management to run the business and progress matters without clunky time-consuming approval processes. This would have removed the business’s ability to be reactive to opportunities, which give it the edge over its competitors. I would on behalf of the board and the business like to thank James for his support”.

The awards will take place on the 4th of April 2019 at The Midland Hotel in Manchester. We wish James and all the nominees the best of luck.

We were backed by Palatine Private Equity in April 2016. At that time, we operated four holiday parks – we now have a portfolio of nine. This speaks volumes about the value that Palatine have added.

In particular, James Painter has provided exceptional support to Verdant Leisure over the last two years. He has actively helped seek out new opportunities for growth, whilst also implementing operational changes that have improved efficiency and cost-saving. James stands out as an exceptional PE professional and a wonderful character, and he thoroughly deserves the title of Young Financier of the Year.

Graham Hodgson

Chief Executive, Verdant Leisure