Business adviser sees record-breaking demand for deals in North
More than £8.5bn of deals have been completed by PwC’s transaction services team in the North during 2021 – beating the £5.5bn total in 2020.
The business adviser said that technology, transformation and ESG were among the most popular areas for investment.
The team revealed that more than half involved supporting corporate clients and private equity-backed portfolio companies with buy and build growth strategies.
Syedul Hussain, transaction services partner for PwC in the North, said: “We have seen record-breaking deal activity over the last 12 months.
“Looking ahead, there is still pent up demand for deals and this will play a key role in the economic recovery with clients looking to us to solve their most pressing issues.
“Our recent CEO Survey shows that successful vaccine roll-out and significant government funding have given the UK a head start on recovery.”
He said their listed assets represent good value, at a time when many investors have full war chests to spend on resilient businesses: “The challenge and opportunity is to attract the right investments and partnerships to deliver sustainable growth across the UK.”
The deals market continues to see high levels of activity, providing PwC’s North TS team with the opportunity to work with a diverse range of corporate and PE clients and across a broad spectrum of sectors, including TMT (technology, media, and telecom), business services, industrial products, healthcare, retail consumer and leisure and financial services.
Working on more than 60 completed transactions across the North, these included Inflexion’s investment in Detectortesters, the sale of Kids Planet to Fremman Capital, acquisition of Huws Gray by Blackstone, Livingbridge’s investment in North SP Group, 3i Infrastructure investment in SRL Traffic Systems and the Vita Group’s acquisition of Usleep.
To help meet this demand, the TS team has invested in its team in the North with 28 new joiners over 2021, and nine promotions announced this month.
These promotions include four directors in Andrew Shaw, Charlotte Hedar, David Tomlinson and Steve Gill.
Jonathan Cooper, transaction services and private business partner for PwC in the North, said: “We continue to invest in people and capability, as shown by the recent suite of promotions for our people. We are hugely proud of our diverse and experienced team, all we achieved in 2021 and the positive outlook we see ahead for 2022.”
