Record quarter for investment bank GCA Altium
Global investment bank GCA Altium’s UK team has reported a record Q1 with 18 deals completed since the start of the year.
In the last month, the bank, which has offices in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, completed nine transactions and globally it has finalised 75 deals since the start of 2021, most of which have been in the technology, digital media, industrials/industrial technology and consumer sectors.
Two thirds of the deals have been technology-related.
GCA reported an increase in cross-border deal activity in Q1, with GCA Altium’s UK team completing several international transactions.
This included advising US-based private equity firm Arcline Investment Management on its acquisition of Liverpool-based ChargePoint Technologies, the sale of SchoolCloud to international provider of software services for schools and teachers, Tes Global and the shareholders of contract research organisation Retrogenix on its sale to US-based Charles River Laboratories.
Over 70 per cent of the UK team’s Q1 transactions involved private equity buyers or sellers.
The team’s PE deals include LDC’s minority investment in Wireless CCTV, Phoenix Equity Partners’ investment in Universally Speaking, an end-to-end service provider for the global video gaming industry and LDC’s investment in Sohonet, the collaboration services platform to the global media and entertainment sector.
GCA Altium also marked its 60th tech-related deal in Europe in the last 12 months with the investment from Growth Capital Partners into cyber security firm Bridewell.
To accommodate rapid growth and deal pipeline, GCA Altium announced a series of appointments and promotions across its UK offices. Dominic Orsini and David Edwards were both promoted to managing director, while Tom Battersby and Declan O’Connor took the position of director. Matthew Furness and Gabrielle Worrall were appointed as vice presidents and Jamie Noble has taken on the associate position.
GCA Altium’s Midlands presence is also growing, with two new VP appointments in Luke Pedley and Sabial Hanif.
Phil Adams, CEO at GCA Altium, said: “Our deal flow has gone from strength to strength in the last six months, with Q1 2021 being our most active quarter ever for GCA Altium in the UK.
“While we have seen tech investments continue to rise, with sub sectors such as ed-tech and gaming also proving popular, as well and digital and creative, there has been a somewhat even spread across different sectors and regions with the consumer sector really springing back to life.
“The pace of deals is also picking up as processes are tightened as a result of the pandemic and valuations are on the up.
“Our book of business is more than 100% up year on year on pre-Covid levels which is a testament to the resilience of our clients and our own business.”
