£180m sale of Yorkshire food group helps boost North’s buyout market
The £180m sale of North Yorkshire’s Karro Food Group, which won Private Equity Deal of the Year at TheBusinessDesk.con’s Rainmaker Awards last week, has helped boost the value of buyouts in the North of England, which reached £4.436bn in the first six months of this year.
Private equity in the North of England has reawakened since last summer’s EU referendum, according to latest figures from the Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR), sponsored by Equistone Partners Europe and Invested Specialist Bank.
The two ‘mega deals’, which are defined as having a value of £1bn or more, were transacted in the North East and North West regions. They were Epiris’ sale of North East headquartered Parkdean Resorts to Onex Corporation for £1.35bn, and the sale of Manchester smart metering financing firm Calvin Capital to KKR for £1bn.
The North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside regions accounted for more than a third of the UK’s deals. Highlights included the £180m sale of Karro Food Group (Malton) to Capvest and the sale of Humber-based Willerby Holiday Homes to Equistone in June.
These figures show how the value of private equity buyouts has bounced back dramatically over the last 12 months. Overall buyout value has recovered growing from £245m (across 19 deals) in H2 2016 to reach £4.436bn (across 23 deals) in H1 2017.
Steve O’Hare, partner for the North of England at Equistone Partners Europe, said: “Looking at the latest statistics, it is clear that the Northern private equity market has recovered following the Brexit vote last summer. Even excluding the two mega deals, it is encouraging to see such an impressive rise in value. This demonstrates the quality of management teams based in the North attracting capital to support their growth. The corporate finance community also continues to thrive across the regions, supporting entrepreneurs and management teams to find the right partners for their business. Despite economic and political uncertainty, the best businesses continue to innovate and invest to gain market share.”
Shaun Mullin at Investec Growth & Acquisition Finance added: “We are encouraged by signs that the UK, long the driver of European private equity dealflow, appears to be recovering from the Brexit outcome. A healthy mix of mid-market and mega-deals reminds us of private equity’s ability to invest across cycles, while the volume of smaller deals reaffirms the robustness of the UK’s SME sector as well as the appetite of many business owners in this area to bring on board financial backing to support their next stage of growth.”
