Smith Cooper have once again secured a top ten ranking in the Midlands region of Experian’s M&A Activity League Tables for H1 2017, being in 9th position by deal volume. However, it has also broken into the top 10 in two additional regions, ranking 8th in both the North East and Northern Ireland. This places Midlands-based Smith Cooper in the top 10 in three of Experian’s 12 regions.
The Experian M&A review revealed that, while M&A deal volumes in the UK fell by 14.4% in H1 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, deal values have increased. The drop in volume is mainly due to the decline in mid-market deals, deals at the smaller end of the spectrum actually increasing.
The Midlands reflected this national trend, with deal volumes decreasing 15% in H1 2017, albeit the drop in volume was utterly overshadowed by a 100% increase in deal values to £8.8bn; this was largely due to the £3.7bn acquisition of Booker Group PLC by Tesco PLC, which ranked 7th in the top ten UK deals.
Smith Cooper’s Corporate Finance division continues to experience strong deal flow, completing no less than 13 deals in just Q1 2017 alone. These deals include the MBI of Alca Fasteners, the acquisition of Ultrasound Direct by The Fertility Partnership, the MBO of Evac+Chair International, and the sales of WFF (York) to a food retail group, and Adshead Ratcliffe & Co to a US group.
Smith Cooper have facilitated further growth in corporate finance activity by the recent appointments of Chris Campbell and Nicola Whiting. Head of Corporate Finance, John Farnsworth commented “our financial year to March 2017 was a record year for deal volumes in Smith Cooper’s Corporate Finance division – we chalked up 28 deals, against a tally of 25 in each of 2015 and 2016. It was pleasing to see this recognised by Smith Cooper winning both the Insider SME Deal of the Year and SME Advisory Team of the Year awards last year, but more gratifying still to see that our team is sustaining that activity – a ranking inside the top ten in both the Midlands and further afield is testimony to the quality of our work and the growing strength of the Smith Cooper brand.”
