Project Seymour

Meridian Corporate Finance advised on the Management Buy-Out of Project Seymour, two ‘sister’ advertising production companies, to support the transition of ownership to the management team.

Established in 2008, Project Seymour works with brands and agencies to design advertising campaigns with their team of creative designers, artworkers, retouchers, editors and animators.

The deal was led by Philip Mettam at Meridian; Lucy Gleisner at Trethowans; and Andrew Jackson at Fiander Tovell.

One of the founder shareholders of Project Seymour commented, “We were recommended to Meridian via Coutts. Philip and the team have been outstanding from the beginning of the process until the recent completion of our MBO.

We knew that we needed to have a plan for the future, but we weren’t sure whether a Sale or Management Buyout was the best option for us. We were literally going around in circles with many people contradicting each other on how we should proceed.

Meridian clearly explained the pros and cons. We were never pressurised and had numerous meetings until we clearly understood our options. The team were always available and explained our options very clearly and most importantly in layman’s terms.

The whole process has taken just over 6 months. We are delighted with the outcome, and no matter what hiccups we encountered along the way the team at Meridian took them in their stride and helped us navigate our way.

We can’t recommend Meridian highly enough, and it’s been a pleasure working with Philip, Hattie and Amrita of Meridian.

Meridian introduced us to Lucy of Trethowans. Lucy explained everything to us very clearly and succinctly. She has always been available to answer any questions from us or the management team. Her expertise, knowledge and attitude has made a potentially stressful legal situation an absolute dream.”

Lucy Gleisner, Partner at Trethowans commented: “The MBO has pulled together two ‘sister’ companies into one group structure and has provided important succession planning. We were delighted to work with the founders and management team to continue the two companies’ growth and wish them the best of luck for the future success.”

Philip Mettam commented: “Seymour is a market leading team of creatives supporting major agencies on a wide array of projects. The team set us the challenge of helping them to build a broader shareholder structure, whilst also giving enough flexibility and protection around future retirements in the team, and the need to recruit and incentivize new talent moving forwards.”