North West law firm Brabners delivers third consecutive year of deal-making growth

The corporate team at North West independent law firm, Brabners, has seen its dealmaking activity grow by almost a third in the past year.

Despite the UK M&A market experiencing a mixed year, Brabners delivered a 31% increase in annual dealmaking values, having advised on more than £800m-worth of activity.

The 50-strong team, which counts Peel Ports, NWF Group and Suez among its clients, supports businesses across the full lifecycle. It saw deal volumes increase last year – advising on 188 transactions across its Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Lancashire offices, compared with 180 in 2023.

This makes 2024 the third consecutive year of growth for the team.

Activity was driven by consistently strong acquisitive demand amongst larger firms, with the team advising global clients including Atlas Copco, Suez Group and Terminal Investment on a number of transactions at home and abroad.

Deal volumes were also buoyed by improving sentiment across a number of the North’s strategic growth sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare and technology.

In this arena, the firm advised on notable transactions including the sale of Compass CHC to Omni Partners as well as the sale of engineering services company BGEN to M Group Services for an undisclosed fee.

Brabners also advised on 22 deals supporting the transition of firms to employee ownership, with clients including popular Liverpool-based restaurant chain Lunya and legal recruitment firm TRG.

The corporate team’s role in the market contributed to Brabners’ revenues surpassing the £50m mark for the first time last year as the purpose-led firm entered into a new three-year strategy cycle.

Ruth Hargreaves, partner and deputy head of the corporate team at Brabners, said: “Despite challenging market conditions, M&A activity remained buoyant in 2024 – and we’re pleased to see that reflected not only in the deal volumes we supported, but also the increased value placed upon high quality businesses coming up for sale or strategic investment.”

She added: “This was the case across the team’s presence in Liverpool, Manchester, Lancashire and Leeds where we supported businesses at all stages of their journey – from those looking to scale-up, capitalise in consolidatory sectors or transition to employee ownership to support succession planning.”