EY North teams advise on deals worth almost £1.3bn in Q4 2022

• EY closes a successful 2022 with another strong quarter in the North deals market, advising on several transactions worth a total of almost £1.3bn.
• In a deal worth £740mn, EY advised on Saint Gobain’s divestment of its merchanting brands, including Jewson and Gibbs & Dandy.
• EY dealmakers advised on the sale of Allied Glass to Verallia in a deal worth £315mn.

Manchester, 15 December 2022: EY teams in the North of England acted on transactions worth a total of almost £1.3bn in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Key highlights included the role EY’s North Transaction Services team played in the £740mn divestment of Saint Gobain’s merchanting brands to STARK Group.

EY’s dealmakers also advised on the £315mn sale of Leeds-based glass manufacturer Allied Glass to glass container manufacturing business Verallia, which is headquartered in France.

Mark Clephan, EY’s North Corporate Finance Partner, said: “Despite sustained headwinds putting pressure on businesses and limiting feasibility for expansion, our teams across the North of England continued to see demand in the market. With the firm playing crucial roles in five significant transactions in Q4 – totalling almost £1.3bn in value – we are delighted to have been able to continue supporting businesses as they embarked on investments, divestments, expansions and more.”

There was further evidence of the growing investment potential in clean technology in Q4, as EY acted as lead advisor to Iduna in securing up to £110mn worth of funding from Octopus Energy Generation for their electric vehicle charging infrastructure business, Be.EV, based in Manchester. The transaction marked Octopus’ first stake in EV charging infrastructure, and provides a significant cash injection for Be.EV, which intends to install 1,000 new EV charge points by 2024, starting in the North of England, to expand its network by more than 600%.

The increasing prominence and interest in technology investment also saw EY’s Transaction Services team providing vendor due diligence to help seal the sale of Warrington-based software company Talos360 to Lloyds Development Capital Limited (LDC).

Steven Kingham, Partner, Strategy and Transactions at EY, added: “As we’ve seen in our latest work in the deals market, companies are continuing to seek out investment opportunities in tech. We expect this trend to continue into 2023, with businesses exploring and harnessing the potential of digital technologies. There’s a particular focus on transformation and post-pandemic efficiency.”