Deloitte sees momentum gathering with third deal in three days
CONFIDENCE is returning to the corporate market according to Deloitte head Martin Jenkins, whose Yorkshire office has advised on three major deals announced this week.
The trio of deal completions will be followed by more that are in the pipeline, says Jenkins, who said Deloitte’s Yorkshire and North East has good “momentum” in its new financial year after revealing that regional revenues grew 6% to £90m in the year to May 31.
Deloitte advised Practice Plan Group, the leading provider of practice-branded dental membership plans, on its acquistion by Birmingham-based Wesleyan Assurance Society; York-based Portakabin, part of the family-owned Shepherd Group, on its acquisition of Oecon Mobilraum, a German modular buildings manufacturer; and Yorkshire-based Renew Holdings on its purchase of Lewis Civil Engineering Group.
Martin Jenkins, corporate finance and practice senior partner at Deloitte in Leeds, led the firm’s teams on all three transactions and said further transactions would complete before the end of the summer.
“This is proving to be a very busy summer for us. We are delighted to have advised on these three transactions with a combined value of over £70m, and which reflect a growing level of confidence and activity that we are seeing in the M&A market.
“What is particularly notable about the three transactions is that this is corporates leveraging their own balance sheet strength.
“Whilst the economic environment over the past year has continued to present many challenges, I believe we have reached a turning point. Confidence is increasing and clients are showing a greater willingness to invest. This is evidenced by a higher demand for those services that are focused on supporting growth.
“Our strategy of investing to grow our practice is reflected in the progress we have made in key sectors for our region such as Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Business and the Public Sector.
Its financial services team is a national centre of excellence for Deloitte in the building societies and specialised lending segments, while its public sector audit and advisory business has been appointed internal auditors to NHS England and its audit practice has been appointed audit and tax advisors to Karro Food Group.
Deloitte’s teams have been involved in several major merger and acquistions including Morrison’s landmark deal with Ocado, the merger of law firms Dickinson Dees and Bond Pearce, the re-financing of LNT Group, Sun European Partner’s acquisition of national bed retailer Dreams and the sale of Nigel Frank to ISIS Equity partners.
Jenkins added: “Our consulting practice posted the strongest growth reflecting an increased focus on investment for the future in both the public and the private sector in new systems, organisational design, operational efficiency and entry to new markets.”
Deloitte, which recently refurbished its Leeds office at 1, City Square, said it 
recruited 70 graduates, school leavers and students last year and has a similar number of places available this year.
DELOTTE has directly invested more than £1m this year in helping small and medium sized companies to grow. This includes tailored support to around 30 high potential socially innovative businesses across the UK including a Yorkshire-based organisation that tackles social issues.
Social Business Brokers brings together a wide range of people from across sectors to develop innovative solutions to complex social problems. It focuses on one issue at a time – currently empty homes – and follows a five stage process which has the ultimate aim of stimulating and supporting a range of approaches to make significant progress in tackling a complex social problem.
Martin Jenkins said: “An independent evaluation of this programme by Social Enterprise UK found that our support helped those enterprises enjoy an average growth rate of 45% in the past year. We have now announced our second wave of Social Innovation Pioneers to continue the success of this scheme.”
