Your top 10: £250m investment bank merger, MBO for £55m turnover logistics firm and tributes to the Duke of Westminster

TOP of the pack this week was the news that investment bank Altium has completed its £250m merger with GCA – a listed Japanese investment bank.

The deal sees Manchester-headquartered Altium merge 100% of its shares into GCA, with chief executive Phil Adams and managing directors Alexander Grünwald and Sascha Pfeiffer joining the GCA board.

The deal follows a strong period for Altium, with the firm completing 47 deals worth £3bn over the last 12 months.

It marks a remarkable transformation of the firm from being predominantly a broking business in 2011 to a global M&A business.

Sticking with deals, Liverpool-headquartered Abbey Logistics has completed a management buyout, with NorthEdge Capital investing eight figures for a significant majority stake.

The £55m company, led by chief executive Steve Granite, has demonstrated strong year-on-year growth over the past five years.

The funding will be used to support growth, including acquisition opportunities.

Finally, and on a more somber note, the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, died on Tuesday, aged 64.

He ranked sixth nationally in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, with a £9.35bn fortune and would annually top the table in the North West Rich List rankings.

But he was also known for his charitable endeavours – his Westminster Foundation spent more than £3.9m charitably last year and donated to the Cheshire and Merseyside community foundations among others.

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