The Midlands M&A team at Deloitte have completed seven transactions in the first seven months of the year at a combined value of £500m.
Of the completions, three involved private equity, including NorthEdge Capital’s sale of a majority stake in critical security services provider Orbis Protect to growth investor Synova, the sale of a minority stake in Sygnature Discovery to Five Arrows Principal Investments and advising August Equity on realising its investment in Pet Cremation Services (PCS), through a sale to VetPartners.
Deloitte has also seen increased appetite for international deals, with more than half of completed transactions having overseas involvement. These included Belron International’s sale of Northamptonshire-based AutoRestore, one of the UK’s leading providers of mobile accident repair services, to German investment group AURELIUS. The team also advised family-run pharma and food packaging specialist Firstan on its sale to Swedish based AR Packaging to expand its presence in the UK.
The Midlands team, which is led by Darren Boocock and David Jones, has seen most activity in the healthcare and consumer sectors, with other deals taking place in business services, TMT and industrials sectors.
Darren Boocock, partner at Deloitte’s M&A team in the Midlands, said: “It’s been an exceptional year of dealmaking so far, with completions on the up compared with previous years. As more markets have opened up, we have seen a good mix of sectors kickstarting the transaction process; most notably in the consumer, healthcare and automotive sectors, in addition to more cross-border deals taking place.
Nick Carr, director at Deloitte’s M&A team in the Midlands, said: “This deals market recovery shows no sign of slowing down and the pipeline for H2 is looking strong, so we are confident that the region, and wider UK, is on an upwards trajectory in the revival of the economy.”
Guy Other, CEO at Orbis Protect, said: “We engaged Darren and the team from the very early stages of the initial investment. They became key strategic advisers as we grew both organically and by acquisition to drive the business to be in the best position to attract further investment. When it came to the sale process, the team showed tremendous skill, tenacity and support, we could not praise them highly enough. They were critical in producing what was a great outcome for all the stakeholders.”
