Deloitte’s transaction services team in the North West has completed nine deals in the last two months, with deal values doubling to £5.5bn over the last year.
Among a series of high profile transactions, the business advisory firm advised on the acquisition of Mobile Phones Direct by AO.com, the sale of property consultancy GVA by private equity house EQT Partners to Avison Young, and the sale of Manchester-based logistics service provider Yearsley to Lineage Logistics Holdings. Deloitte also provided financial and tax vendor due diligence to Manchester-based hosting provider UKFast on the sale of a 30 per cent stake to private equity house Inflexion, which valued the business at £405m.
The firm has also started the New Year strongly, advising Waterland Private Equity on its investment in residential services provider Sandcastle Care.
Over the course of the year, the transaction value of the deals advised on is an 87 per cent rise on the £3bn seen over the same period last year, with the team advising on a total of 44 deals. Two sectors have been particularly significant over the last 12 months – consumer business and technology, media and telecoms (TMT).
The Deloitte North West team has advised on 14 deals worth £2.2bn in the consumer business sector (which also includes logistics and travel) which is more than treble the £0.7bn completed over the previous year. This includes some of the region’s most significant transactions including advising Equistone-backed Travel Counsellors on its secondary buyout by Vitruvian Partners, and Eddie Stobart Logistics Plc on the acquisition of The Pallet Network.
The North West’s flourishing TMT sector has also seen a rise in deal values over the last year, with the Deloitte team advising on transactions worth £1.4bn, again nearly treble the previous year. This includes advising NorthEdge Capital on its investment into Cloud Technology Solutions, as well as Waterland Private Equity’s acquisition of GasTag.
To maintain this success, Deloitte has continued to strengthen its transaction services team in the North West, adding over ten new members in the last 12 months. Based across the firm’s Manchester and Liverpool offices, the team now consists of 30.
Dan Wright, Transaction Services Director at Deloitte in the North West, said: “Over the last eighteen months, our transaction services team has been at the heart of some of the region’s most significant deals, demonstrating our range of advisory expertise. Despite the challenging global market conditions, the success of the team in the last year underlines the appetite for growth through acquisition, as well as the opportunity presented to private equity houses.”
Jodi Birkett, Transaction Services Partner at Deloitte in the North West, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to work alongside so many high profile and influential clients in the region. It is fantastic to see our region thrive and continue to support entrepreneurs as they build businesses of quality and scale. The North West continues to show considerable resilience and demonstrates an appetite to invest in the right opportunities. We approach 2019 with cautious optimism for our region.”
