It’s been a busy and exciting year for UK mergers and acquisitions with near-record high levels of activity. At the same time, Smith Cooper joined PKF International, one of the world’s largest accountancy networks, which has provided our team with unprecedented access to global purchasers.
Locally, the Midlands PKF team completed 23 deals worth £144m and we were recognised by our peers for the Insider Dealmakers Award ‘East Midlands Deal of the Year Under £10m’. This was for Fabrikat, a manufacturer of street furniture, led by David Crump and John Farnsworth. We have also received multiple nominations for the forthcoming Insider Dealmakers Awards in May 2022.
During the year, we welcomed on board Harnil Motivaras, Senior Executive, from PwC and Tom Joy was promoted to Manager. We are now recruiting at all levels across all our offices as we
continue to push for growth. The higher percentage of sell-side opportunities seen in FY21
was maintained in FY22, driven by higher valuations across most sectors in the current market.
From a sector perspective:
- Our largest sector in the Midlands was in one of our key specialisms – telecommunications and technology. This included the acquisition of Alan Dick Communications Limited, a specialist in mission critical communications, by Mutares from Panasonic. It represented Mutares’ first investment in the UK
- We also continued to develop our specialism in the self storage sector with the acquisition of an operating site in Darlington for Quick Self Storage
- Despite the food and drink sector being impacted by Covid, our specialism in this sector continued to yield more deals including the sale of Amsric, a Starbucks franchise, which was sold to Southern Co-op
- In the professional services sector we are proud to have sold Olivehorse Consulting, a supply chain consultancy practice, to PwC
- We also completed the sale of TIS, a fire and security business, to Key Capital Partners
- On the back of joining the PKF network, and increasing our international reach, we sold Commercial Vehicle Hydraulics to OMFB, an Italian group that operates across Italy, France, Spain, Australia, China and India
Our reach
During 2021 we joined PKF International, which has had a dramatic impact on our business. Our pooled knowledge on potential purchasers, deal multiples and sector intelligence dramatically increased, providing a significant benefit to our clients.
Across the whole of the UK and Ireland, our combined team completed almost 140 deals, making us one of the largest M&A providers in the UK (ranked 6th nationally by volume of deals).
Outlook
The outlook for corporate finance is exceedingly optimistic for FY23 and we expect it to be a record-breaking year despite inflation and the political environment. We would like to thank all the clients and professionals that have supported us in the last financial year. It’s a privileged role that we hold as advisers, which we never lose sight of. Our team are ready, willing and able to deliver more exceptional results in the next financial year.
Read our 2020-2021 annual deals book below, or find out more about our corporate finance services here.
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