Daniel Black
Hello,
We shared news recently that football club takeovers dropped by 50% in 2024. But while appetite might be dimming, there’s still money to be made if your new owner comes with the right celebrity status.
Bloomberg reports this week that Ryan Reynolds has made a return of 4,900% on Wrexham AFC. Not bad at all.
In other M&A news this week:
- NHS landlord Assura is to accept a £1.6bn bid from a KKR consortium
- Bain and WPP have shelved IPO plans and will sell Kantar assets instead
- Ian Hannam struck a blow for bankers in his $18m dispute with Barrick Gold
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
- Executives discuss revival for Britain’s smallcap AIM market
- High-growth, UK-based OakNorth seeks US charter
- OakNorth surpasses £12.5bn in lending and continues its US expansion
- Serica Energy is in talks for possible merger with EnQuest
- Assura shares rise on a £1.6bn bid from KKR and Stonepeak Partners
- Barrick Gold must pay dealmaker Hannam £1.55m over Randgold merger, UK court rules
- Alliance Pharma accepts DBAY’s sweetened final offer, valuing the healthcare group at about £362m
- Rosebank drops plans to buy wire harness maker ECI
- Pershing Square extends standstill pact with Howard Hughes Holdings
- Ageas and Allianz explore bids for British insurance group esure
- Asda and Morrisons struggle under weight of private equity ownership
- Pepco Group explores potential sale of its struggling Poundland discount retailer business in the UK after receiving interest from potential buyers
- Blackstone rebrands its £2.32bn Hipgnosis brand to ‘Recognition’ as it consolidates its music assets
- Deliveroo is to exit its Hong Kong operations by selling some assets to Delivery Hero’s foodpanda
- Charterhouse agrees to acquire French fire safety group Estya
- Accenture agrees to acquire Soben
- Kantar owners, WPP and Bain, look to sell its Worldpanel division for £5bn, rather than opt for IPO
- Drugmakers Mallinckrodt are Endo in talks to merge in a deal valued at around $7bn
- Care REIT agrees terms for £450m takeover by CareTrust REIT
- Alliance Pharma board backs final £362m takeover bid
- Barclays reportedly nears deal to offload UK merchant acquiring business to Canada’s Brookfield
- Neo Energy Metals agrees to buy land from Sibanye Stillwater
- TI Fluid pays no final dividend ahead of its £1.04bn takeover by ABC Technologies, as profit falls
- Kingswood Holdings is in an advanced talks with HSQ Investments for a potential buyout as financials worse
- nVent is to buy Avail Infra’s electrical products unit in £754m deal
- Brown and Brown acquires Edinburgh-based MGA specialising in construction
- Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham AFC is now worth 4,900% more at £100m
- Genel Energy secures 40% stake in Oman’s Block 54 exploration deal
- Rotork agrees to acquire South Korean actuators manufacturer Noah for £44m
- Sirius Real Estate is to buy Chalcroft Business Park for £36.5m
- Cake Box raises equity to fund £22m Ambala Foods acquisition
- abrdn Japan Equity Fund plans merger with abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund
- Ex-Barclays CEO Jes Staley referred to Epstein as ‘uncle Jeffrey’ in email to daughter, court hears
- IK makes first investment in UK insurance market with Seventeen Group
Salaries and bonuses
- Santander’s investment banking bonuses fell 9% in 2024, with fewer top earners making over £8m
- Deutsche Bank boosts bonuses in 2024 but cut macro traders’ pay by 10%-15%
Job moves
- Goldman’s top European IPO banker Christoph Stanger is to retire after 31 years
- ClearBank promotes Mark Fairless to CEO as Charles McManus steps down
- Martyn Beauchamp appointed permanent CEO of FSCS
- Barclays hires RBC’s Kolz as co-head of equity capital markets
- Trump-linked investment firm hires Citi London sales head Vincent Vandenbroucke as international COO
- Royal London appoints Barclays’ Lee Ellis as group chief digital officer
- Former Kasisto exec Lindsay Soergel is named as new Fintilect CEO
- Former Visa data head Jeremy Penzer joins Zopa as chief analytics officer
- ClearBank promotes Mark Fairless to CEO as Charles McManus steps down
- Ex-Credit Suisse trio joins Piper Sandler for Zurich launch
- Coutts’ Camilla Stowell joins Rathbones as wealth CEO
- SJP hires ex-Aberdeen marketing boss Rob Sanders as chief client officer
- Travers Smith hires Jeremy Dennison, Livingbridge lawyer
- Impax general counsel and strategy head exit as 30 staff axed
- BancTrust axes 15 London jobs in cost-cutting drive
- SIX set to cut 150 jobs in bid to boost margins
- Rollercoaster London hedge fund seeks new passenger
Market trends
When will our M&A rebound arrive?
Remember the optimism back in January? This was definitely going to be the year that M&A activity roared back to life. But in contrast with earlier expectations, experts from The Daily Upside highlight a notable decline in deals this year.
Volumes are down 19% YoY, while total deal value has fallen to £192.4bn, down 29% YoY. The reasons for this seem fairly obvious – tariffs, trade wars, and a failure of anticipated policy shifts have bred uncertainty and chipped away at market confidence.
However, the authors highlight one bright spot in the dealmaking ecosystem: private equity, which is still sitting on some $1.2 trillion in dry powder.
And with that, congratulations to BGF for securing the top spot as the most active PE firm in the UK and Ireland for 2024.
Low values for European IT M&A
Europe is lagging behind Asia and North America when it comes to deal size in the IT services sector, according to new research from Aventis Advisors.
The report analyzed 8,000 IT Services M&A transactions between 2015 and 2024 and found that average European deal valuations stood at 9.9x EV/EBITDA and 1.2x EV/Revenue. In comparison, Asia leads with highest EV/Revenue (2.4x) and EV/EBITDA (14.3x), and North America surpasses both regions combined in the median deal size ($85m).
The report notes that dealmakers should benefit from increased activity in 2025, with growth likely to be focused on AI consulting and integration, cybersecurity, and defence. However any increase in valuations is contingent on further interest rate cuts.
Manufacturing M&A
UK manufacturing M&A enjoyed a strong rebound last year, with 782 deals closed compared to 707 in 2023 (+11%). The autumn budget provided a late-year boost, with 475 deals closing in the second half ahead of anticipated changes to capital gains tax and business asset disposal relief.
But it’s not all good news. Businesses are grappling with rising employer’s NI costs and minimum wage hikes, alongside proposed employment law changes. As a result, apparently a quarter (26%) of UK firms are considering a partial or full sale within two years.
However, BDO Partner Roger Buckley expects another strong M&A year in 2025, suggesting “there remains a large cohort of cash-rich investors who believe in the long-term prospects and broad opportunities for growth within the sector.”
Fundraising
- NextEnergy Capital’s UK solar fund raises £733m
- Buchler Phillips launches PE venture Bronzewood Capital
IPOs
- Uzbek gold miner NMMC ramps up London IPO preparations
- Air Baltic is to target UK listing as soon as next quarter
