Engineering and manufacturing businesses across the Midlands continue to attract acquisition interest, with deal activity proving robust despite difficult conditions in the wider market.<\/p>\n
Research from the Corporate Finance team at accountancy and advisory firm Azets recorded 38 completed transactions across the region during the nine months to September 2026, equivalent to almost one deal each week.<\/p>\n
The findings point to sustained demand for privately owned businesses, with international buyers accounting for approximately a third of transactions. Most overseas acquirers were based in Europe or the US.<\/p>\n
Alper Dervish, partner at Azets, said: \u201cThis is the latest mergers and acquisitions activity report compiled by our Corporate Finance Advisory team. It shows resilience in the engineering and manufacturing sector across the Midlands, especially with SMEs. And that is despite strong headwinds nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere terms were disclosed, the businesses at the top end were not necessarily the largest but were the ones with long-term customer contracts on long cycle programmes in high demand sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwedish acquisitive groups were the most active from abroad \u2013 and with a third of buyers from overseas there remains strong cross-border activity. Strategic trade acquirers accounted for 80% of buyers and we anticipate high levels of activity to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cA trade sale is not the only exit option for business owners. The last nine months produced management buyouts, employee ownership transitions and partial sales where the seller retained a minority stake and management continued to run the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Azets, which has offices in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Tamworth, Coventry, Nottingham and Shrewsbury, said the results highlighted the continued appeal of the Midlands as a destination for investment in the industrial sector.<\/p>\n
Engineering and manufacturing make a substantial contribution to the UK economy, with the two sectors generating combined gross value added of around \u00a3950bn \u2013 approximately 40% of national economic output.<\/p>\n
Gary Hyem, partner at Azets, said: \u201cThe Midlands continues to be a hotbed for engineering and manufacturing with its long-standing industrial heritage. Today, it still benefits from a skilled population, clustering of businesses, effective supply chains and a culture of research and development aided by academic support.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Corporate Finance Advisory team in the Midlands is highly experienced within the engineering and manufacturing sector and assists in all types of corporate transactions, advising on buying, selling and funding such deals across all sizes of business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndustrials continues to be one of our leading five sectors nationally. We\u2019re delighted that we have continued to complete a deal every two working days (with 2\/3 being sell-side and 1\/3 buy-side) despite the challenges in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A third of buyers came from overseas, while 38 deals were completed across the region in nine months<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266702,"featured_media":2116958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"coauthors":[127717],"class_list":["post-2116957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-derbyshire","tag-featured-story","tag-leicestershire","tag-lincolnshire","tag-northamptonshire","tag-nottinghamshire"],"yoast_head":"\n