North West deals market “extremely strong” as EY completes deals worth £1.3bn in H1

EY’s North West transaction advisory services team has completed transactions worth more than £1.3bn in the first half of the year as it said the pipeline of deals for the rest of 2017 remains strong.

Highlights include the disposal of Utiligroup to ESG, the disposal of Direct Group to Towergate, the sale of Fine Industries to Lianhe Chemical Technology and the IPO of Ramsdens Financial Services.

Other completed deals include the acquisition of UK2 by The Hut Group, the carve out of Future Industrial Services from One51 and the refinancing of Northern Trust Group.

These completions follow on from a “very active” 2016, EY said, in which the team advised on 30 transactions worth over £3bn.

Richard Harding, transaction services partner at EY in the North, said: “The M&A market in the North continues to be extremely strong. We are seeing increased activity from the local private equity community and acquisitive North West businesses, along with continued interest in the region from international corporates and investors.”

Mark Clephan, corporate finance partner at EY in the North, added: “The pipeline of deals for the remainder of 2017 suggests that the momentum will continue with high levels of M&A activity and a number of high quality North West businesses coming to market in the coming months.”