Daniel Black
Hello,
The news on tariffs and trade wars will likely have taken another turn by the time you read this, so let’s instead focus on a busy week in the job market. There have been senior moves at Goldman and Rothschild, while ex-PM David Cameron has joined Jeb Bush’s PE fund. It’s all about who you know.
Also making the headlines this week:
- Shell is considering selling its European and US chemical assets
- The CMA cleared the £27.2bn Synopsys-Ansys deal…
- …and reopened its probe into Spreadex’s buyout of Sporting Index’s consumer business
Thanks for reading, and connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to discuss how I can help with your next M&A deal.
Deal Tracker
Our weekly roundup of all the confirmed M&A deals in the UK.
The rumour mill
- Weakening UK demand could help bear down on inflation, says BoE governor, Andrew Bailey
- BoE plans to ease leverage rules on UK lenders
- Reeves is to propose spending cuts to fix UK’s worsening public finances
- Reeves warns trade war will harm British economy even if the UK strikes a trade deal with the White House
- The UK’s tax authority HMRC makes a banking switch by dropping Barclays after 10 years and awarding a £99m contract to its rival Lloyds
- FCA is to probe private asset managers over potential conflicts of interest
- CMA clears £27.2bn Synopsys-Ansys deal
- CMA is to reopen its probe into Spreadex’s acquisition of Sporting Index’s consumer-facing arm
- Revolut investors push for a £46.6bn secondary share sale
- FTSE Russell will allow euro- and dollar-denominated stocks to join major UK indexes
- Prudential aims for a £9.3bn valuation in the potential IPO of its Indian joint ICICI Prudential Asset Management
- Shell mulls sale of its European and US chemicals assets, hiring Morgan Stanley for a strategic review
- LBG Media chiefs have been buying shares following a nearly 20% stock decline since January, despite strong revenue growth driven by US expansion
- Diageo’s CCO Dayalan Nayager purchased £0.5m worth of shares as the company faces macroeconomic pressures
- Saudi Aramco explores initial bid for BP’s Castrol unit
- Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat vies for secure Italian telecoms contract
- Europe’s major airlines, facing regulatory hurdles against large mergers, shift towards smaller deals
- ‘Slowly then suddenly’: Wood Group’s slide from North Sea champion to struggles with debt
- Weir Group is to acquire mining tech company Micromine for £657m
- WH Smith plans to sell its high street chain but not name rights
- CK Infrastructure may bid for Viridor
- Senior PLC is in advanced negotiations to sell its aerostructures business
- Direct Line reports strong financial progress ahead of Aviva takeover
- Team Internet shares dive as Verdane Fund Manager AB withdraws interest
- Warehouse REIT rejects £463m bid approach from a consortium comprising Sixth Street Luxembourg and Blackstone Europe
- Apax Increases its investment in ECI Software
- Exponent agrees to invest in digital transformation provider Hippo Digital
- PX3-backed Cleanova acquires manufacturer Micronics
- BGF made a multi-million-pound investment in OCL Vision
Salaries and bonuses
Job moves
- David Cameron joins Jeb Bush’s private equity firm
- Freshfields hires two top energy and infrastructure lawyers from Paul Hastings
- Rothschild hires former Moelis banker Jonathan Kaye to co-lead business services
- Jeremy Parrish steps down as non-exec chair of Julius Baer’s UK business, with Denise Cockrem set to replace him
- BlueCrest Capital’s Grant Oliver joins fintech firm Celoxica
- Abrdn taps Siobhan Boylan from Coutts for group CFO role
- Goldman Sachs appoints Erika Singer as newest MD in its financing and capital market group in London
- Marie Lauri, Deutsche Bank chief data office MD in London leaves for Société Générale
- Alantra promotes 11 new managing directors
- HSBC hiring for new UK global banking boss as Markham takes on top credit role
- Goldman Sachs names new leaders in Spain as Diaz-Pintado steps down
- Marqeta names Mike Milotich as new interim CEO as Simon Khalaf departs
- Finova names former Redwood Bank exec Sebastian Mrotzek as new director of operations
- UK embedded finance provider Weavr promotes Jon Burrell to deputy CEO
- Marlborough Partners appoints Senior Advisor in Nordic team
- Phoenix expands investment team with promotions and new hires
- Cube IM bolsters senior leadership team with three promotions
- G-Research, a secretive London trading firm, might have started hiring in New York
Market trends
Has private equity dealmaking turned a corner?
PE investments and exits increased last year after several years on the slide, according to Bain’s new report. In North America, buyout deal value grew 34% off a 9% increase in deal count, while in Europe deal value shot up by 54%.
And funds still have $1.2 trillion in dry powder waiting to be deployed, though the authors note that the industry is on edge due to uncertainty caused by tariffs and taxes. Clarity around macro issues will be needed if momentum is to be maintained.
Fertile ground for agri-tech M&A
As highlighted by Mergermarket’s data, European agri-tech M&A activity reached a record €1.84bn across only 11 deals in 2024, a significant jump from €189.5m across 24 deals in 2023. This surge reflects a combination of decreasing tech cost and an increasing availability of capital.
The report highlights deals including KKR and Highland investing in smaXtech, an Austrian monitoring platform for dairy cows, and Groupe ISAGRI acquiring Sencrop, a company specialising in weather and irrigation solutions.
On the regulatory front, new rules like the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Germany’s supply chain law are prompting businesses to collect more data on products origins and quality, making tech solutions essential for compliance.
Fewer funding rounds for AI startups
While the hype around AI remains as frothy as ever, funding rounds continued to decline in 2024. Data from Aventis Advisors shows there were just over 5,000 funding rounds for AI firms last year, down 10% compared to 2023.
However, the total capital raised reached a new high of $95bn, just above the previous record of $93bn in 2021. Is it a sign of the sector’s maturity that later-stage funding rounds are attracting such high values? Or a signal that we’re witnessing an AI bubble?
Is 2025 the year mid-market M&A springs to life?
And finally, mid-market deal activity stayed flat in 2024 with 180 deals worth £10.8bn, according to analysis from Trowers. Manufacturing saw the highest number of deals with 33, followed by TMT with 16.
Like other analysts, the authors remain optimistic about the outlook for 2025 due to relative political stability and pressure on dealmakers to ramp up activity.
From Monitoring mid-market M&A in the UK – 2025
IPOs
- UK-focused equity capital market bankers advise patience as London’s IPO market experiences its slowest start since 2023, with less than £59m in deal volume since January
- Meanwhile, European IPO activity is expected to ramp up later in 2025
