Member Article

PwC’s corporate finance team completes hat trick of deals in ten days

PwC’s northern corporate finance team has completed three deals in ten days, as the increasing confidence in the deals market continues to grow.

The deals totalled a combined value of around £150m involving businesses in the North East and North West of England. The deals spanned a range of sectors including travel management, manufacturing and testing and inspection.

The first transaction involved online travel firm On The Beach which completed earlier this month, as it was acquired by Inflexion Private Equity in a £73m deal. The ambitious firm has doubled in size over the last two years and plans to expand internationally, targeting sales of £500m in the next three years.

The second was completed two days later when Express Engineering, a Gateshead-headquartered precision engineering business, secured a capital injection from private equity investor LDC. The deal will allow Express’ management team to grow the business and to capitalise on growth in the international oil and gas sector.

The third deal completed last week with Canadian group CSA acquiring Lancashire-based Mi Technology. The deal will enable Mi Technology to expand its automotive testing reach to new markets in Europe, Asia and North America, as well as the ability to build on emerging business in sectors such as aerospace, oil and gas and industrial.

Paul Mankin, corporate finance partner at PwC in Newcastle said: “These deals represent the growing confidence in the region’s deals market, which has seen a good flow of activity in recent months. There is a definite appetite for ambitious companies with a strong management team and international growth potential, across a number of sectors. Activity is also fuelled by the continuing high levels of demand among both private equity and overseas investors as shown by CSA’s acquisition of Mi Technologies.

“Processes have been highly competitive for strong businesses, a trend which we expect to continue into next year. The progress is steady, but very welcome.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by PwC .