EY’s North dealmakers upbeat after a strong first quarter of activity

North transactions teams advised on around £1bn of deals in first quarter of 2021.

EY’s North Strategy and Transactions teams acted on 15 completed deals worth a total of around £1bn in the first three months of 2021.

North West highlights among the deals included private equity firm NorthEdge’s investment in cyber distributor Distology, Radius’ acquisition of Rainbow Communications, Inflexion’s investment in global payments consultancy CMS Payments Intelligence and the sale of WCCTV to private equity firm LDC.

In Yorkshire, the team supported the acquisition of nutritional supplement manufacturer Bee Health by US-based INW, Novax’s acquisition of clean label food ingredients specialist Ulrick & Short, Elaghmore on the acquisition of fruit and desserts supplier Orchard House Fruits and advised on the LDC-backed merger of Lomond Capital with Harrogate-headquartered Linley & Simpson to create a national lettings and estate agency group.

Mark Clephan, Corporate Finance Partner at EY in the North, said: “We’ve had a strong start to the year with some meaty deals for well-known regional businesses. Many of these deals have involved private equity, underlining the North PE community’s trust in our expertise and demonstrating the appetite to invest at the moment – something I expect will continue for the rest of the year.”

Mark Allcroft, Strategy and Transactions Partner for EY across Yorkshire and the North East, said: “The deals we have supported across Yorkshire have been a real mix of private equity, listed businesses and private businesses looking to grow through acquisition. It’s testament to the mix of businesses we have in this region, but all have had one thing in common: they are continuing to invest in growth.”

Steven Kingham, Partner and Head of Transaction Services for EY in the North West, said: “I’m expecting the strong activity we have seen from the technology sector to continue throughout 2021 and, given the experience out team has in this sector, I’m preparing for another exceptionally busy year with plans to grow our North West team further.”