B&M deal dominates buyout data
THE total value of North West private equity buyouts in the first quarter was down on last year, and activity was dominated by two deals.
Data compiled by the Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR), for Equistone Partners Europe and Ernst & Young, showed nine deals worth a total of £1.2bn were completed during the first three months, compared to eight worth £1.6bn in 2012.
Researchers included the £964m sale of Liverpool-based B&M Retail to US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which was announced in December. The other big deal was the acquisition of Chester-based pub group Admiral Taverns by US investment firm Cerberus Capital Management for £200m.
The comparative period in 2012 was equally inflated by Malcolm Walker’s £1.4bn acquisition of supermarket chain Iceland. Nonetheless, the North West figure was three times the value of transactions in London during the same period where there were only four deals, worth £482m.
Buyout activity in the North West accounted for more than a quarter (27%) of all UK buyouts by volume (33 deals, worth £3.2bn) and more than a third by value (38%). Of the national buyouts six were in manufacturing (worth £418m), six were in business and support services (£498m), five were in retail (£1.2bn) and four were in leisure (£798m).
Steve O’Hare, director of Equistone Partners Europe in the North, which is based in Manchester, said: “Deal volumes have shown good recovery since 2008, demonstrating the confidence of funders and private equity investors in the North West.
“We continue to see high quality businesses with skilled management teams who are looking to continue growing their businesses and see private equity funding as a means to achieving this. Once again, the data shows that the North West is the strongest performing out of all the UK regions when it comes to dealmaking. It is also impressive that for the second successive quarter the North West has outperformed the capital albeit this is unlikely to remain the medium term trend.”
