Dear Reader,
Please find below this week’s newsletter covering the latest M&A, company performance, fundraisings and executive moves.
We are delighted to formally launch The Renatus Podcast this weekend.
We would especially like to thank our first guest, Barry Maloney. In this inaugural podcast, Renatus advisor and investor, Greg Dilger sits down with world-class venture capitalist Barry Maloney, who is currently chairman of the HR technology firm Workhuman. Barry discusses his fascinating career to date, while also discussing his Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Minella Indo.
There is something in this podcast for everyone, be it a young graduate setting off on a career, the exuberance, trials, and tribulations of horse racing, the world of Venture Capital, and much more.
A few highlights from the episode:
Special thanks to our own Adrian Stackpoole who taught himself how to produce a podcast over the past few weeks. We want to keep improving this and will do a dozen a year with people who have fascinating business experiences. Any suggestions for us to improve please send on.
Have a listen, we hope you enjoy it: The Renatus Podcast – Episode 1 with Barry Maloney
Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Deal Details: Dublin-based and Nasdaq and London-listed Amryt Pharma has agreed to acquire Chiasma Inc. in an all-stock transaction. Chiasma has been reportedly valued at $330m (€277m). The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2021.
Amryt is a global commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on acquiring, developing and commercializing innovative treatments to help improve the lives of patients with rare and orphan diseases.
US-based Chiasma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing oral therapies to improve the lives of patients who face challenges associated with their existing treatments for rare and serious chronic diseases.
Advisers:
Amryt
Moelis & Company LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is serving as legal advisor to Amryt in this transaction. Shore Capital is acting as NOMAD and Joint Broker to Amryt.
Gareth Cosgrove and his team in Grant Thornton Dublin also provided transaction support to Amryt.
Chiasma
Torreya Capital LLC is serving as financial advisor and Goodwin Procter LLP is serving as legal advisor to Chiasma. Chiasma’s Board of Directors was provided a fairness opinion by Duff & Phelps.
Renatus Comment: A trend which has been playing out over a long time is that of large pharmaceutical companies shifting towards M&A from R&D as they grow and mature. This has created an extremely active deal universe in the respective markets. Today, many of the leading products of major pharma companies were not developed in-house.
The concept applies across industries, particularly and more recently in technology. The larger and established players pursue aggressive M&A strategies to acquire cutting edge capabilities to ensure they stay at the top.
Source: Amryt Press Release @ Globalnewswire.com
Deal Details: Sovereign Capital Partners, a UK private equity company, has completed a significant investment in AquaQ Analytics (‘AquaQ’). The transaction details were not disclosed.
Belfast-headquartered AquaQ, founded in 2011, is a specialist data analytics and data science services business supporting global financial institutions.
AquaQ employs over 180 people across its offices in NI, the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Sovereign is backing AquaQ founders Ronan Pairceir and James Bradley to further grow the company’s international presence and develop its range of services.
Along with Ronan Pairceir (CEO) and James Bradley (Chief Strategic Office), other members of AquaQ’s shareholding group prior to the investment included Jonny Press (CTO), Ciara McCloskey (HR Head), Jamie Grant (Technical Director), Bernadette McFarlane and Chirs McAuley.
Advisers: A Deloitte team of Anya Cummins, Denis Murphy, Andrew Johnston, Philippa Reynolds, and Peter Allen advised the shareholders of AquaQ
Law firm DWF advised Sovereign. Belfast partner James Morrison worked alongside partner Alasdair Outhwaite and associate Ciara Healy in Manchester and Liverpool partner James Cashman to deliver on the legal aspects of the investment.
Renatus Comment: Northern Ireland is establishing itself as a global hub for financial analytics technology. AquaQ is the latest emergent star following in the footsteps of First Derivatives who are a true success story.
It is interesting to see AquaQ leveraging First Derivatives’ kx and kdb+ products in its own offerings. It perhaps points to how one successful giant can promote the growth of its own market in its locality.
A similar dynamic has been witnessed in the MedTech sector in the West of Ireland with the positioning of American giants there and hopefully the likes of Stripe, et al will have this effect on Ireland’s already strong and emerging tech scene.
Source: Sovereign Capital
Deal Details: DCC Energy Division, which trades in Ireland under the Emo brand, has agreed to acquire Jones Oil for an undisclosed sum.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Dublin-headquartered Jones Oil, founded in 1985, supplies home heating oil and commercial fuels to the agricultural, commercial, industrial and marine sectors. The company has 15 depots nationwide employing 150 staff and a fleet of 45 tanker trucks. Prior to the sale, CEO Pat Nevin owned 60% of the shares in Jones Oil. CFO Paul Curran owned 30% while Des Broderick owned 10%.
DCC is one of the leading fuel distribution companies in Ireland. The London-listed company is one of the biggest Irish companies by value with a market capitalisation of £6.25bn (€7.21bn), it is also a member of the FTSE 100 index of large companies.
DCC is highly acquisitive and has spent £3.3bn on 280 bolt-on acquisitions in the last 26 years since the company floated on the stock market.
Advisers: James Doody, Alex Penny & Mark Kelly of IBI Corporate Finance advised Jones Oil
Renatus Comment: While oil still plays a critical part in our lives, on a long-term perspective, the market is in structural decline due to advent of more efficient energy sources.
The general rule is that new industries are highly fragmented and consolidate as they mature. We should expect to see more activity and further consolidation in the oil market, all along the value chain, over the coming years.
Source: Independent
Deal Details: Inpute Technologies has been acquired by Barrow Active for an undisclosed sum.
Inpute, founded in 2000 by Aidan Bailey, specialises in digitisation and process automation software with offices in Dublin, London and Wroclaw Poland.
Barrow Active was established by Morgan McElligott in May 2020 to find and acquire established Irish SMEs with growth potential.
Advisers: Michael Coyle of Arthur Cox and Hazel Cryan & Alan Bromell of KPMG advised Barrow Active. Hibernia Corporate Finance and OBL advised Inpute.
Renatus Comment: Prior to the transaction, Inpute Technologies Ltd was owned by Aidan Bailey, Chirs Howard, David McConnell, Jane Lawlor, Ciaran Baily and Aidan Mullen. The business reported revenue of c. €3.0m in its financial year to Apr ’20 which was a c. 31% increase year-over-year.
Morgan McElligott left the comfort of a fast track career in DCC to set up Barrow Active and on his own within a year has got what looks like a clever first deal. It is great to see a plan coming off when someone has the courage to back their convictions and hop off the PAYE ladder.
Source: Inpute Technologies
Deal Details: The MHL Hotel Collection has acquired The Moxy Dublin City from Midwest Holding for around €35m in an off-market deal.
The MHL Hotel Collection was formed in 2013 by its three partners John Malone, Paul Higgins and John Lally.
Following the acquisition, MHL will comprise 12 hotels. Its brands also include The Westin, The Intercontinental, Powerscourt Resort, The Morgan, and the Strand Hotel in Limerick.
The Moxy Dublin City is located immediately behind the new Clery’s development in Dublin’s north inner city. It has 157 rooms.
The hotel benefits from its association with Marriott Worldwide being franchised as the Moxy Hotel and the first Moxy in Ireland.
Advisers: CBRE Hotels represented Midwest Holding on this transaction, led by Paul Collins and Alexandra Sheeran.
A Mason Hayes & Curran team of Jamie Fitzmaurice and Maria Hickey provided legal advice; David Moran of Twomey Moran was on tax while Adrian Shanagher of Firebreak (transaction manager) also acted for the sellers.
Alan Adams of Amoss provided legal advice and Deloitte on tax provided buy-side support to MHL.
Renatus Comment: For over a year now, the hospitality and tourism industry in Ireland has been faced with the unprecedented situation of being largely unable to trade, bar a couple months last summer. This is one of the first high profile deals completed in the domestic hotel market since the onset of the pandemic and more may follow due to the pent up flow of transactions after a quiet year and from some distressed situations given the circumstances.
Source: CBRE Press Release
Deal Details: Irish security and alarm company Action24 has agreed to acquire Integral Security. The deal value has not been disclosed however the figure is reported to be in the region of €2m.
Action24 was founded in 1981 and employs 75 staff. It provides monitored intruder and fire alarms, CCTV and access control solutions to over 20,000 commercial and residential clients across the country. Action24 is owned by Derek, Pat and Aaron Mooney. It has received backing from BGF.
Integral Security, based in Co. Dublin, provides security solutions to corporate and retail clients including Lifestyle Sports, the Irish Aviation Authority, Powercity and Café Sol. Prior to the transaction, Integral was led by Adrian Thompson and Paul O’Connor who will reportedly join Action24 on completion.
Advisers: Gavin Pitcher & David Regan of CKS Finance and Paul Bohan Solicitors advised Action24.
Renatus Comment: Both the B2C and B2B alarm M&A market has been active in recent times. Fortus Group acquired two businesses in March (RE:SURE and Enterprise Security Distribution) and HomeSecure was sold to Norweigian group Sector Alarms, among other deals.
Technology innovations in the sector, particularly with regard to remote and ongoing monitoring, have turned these businesses into highly efficient recurring revenue generators which make them extremely attractive targets for private capital and trade. We are in the middle of a number of players attempting to execute a roll-up in this sector.
Source: RTE
Deal Details: Infobip Group, a Croatian-headquartered global cloud communications platform company, has acquired Anam Technologies. The deal consideration was not disclosed.
Anam Technologies, headquartered in Dublin, is the world’s leading independent SMS Firewall and A2P (Application-2-Person) Monetisation service provider, filtering billions of messages for Mobile Operators for more than 650m subscribers across 85 countries.
Infobip operates a full-stack Communications Platform as a Service with private cloud infrastructure and zero-hop connectivity to telecoms globally.
Following transaction, Anam will join Infobip’s Strategic Operator Partnerships division.
Advisers: Jan Fitzell; Sam Nolan and Gareth Sullivan of Deloitte Ireland M&A as well as Deloitte’s tax team advised Anam on the sale.
Eversheds Ireland, Morrison & Foerster and Ernst & Young also advised on this transaction.
Renatus Comment: Application-2-Person or A2P SMS is something that we are all likely familiar with, and interact with, but rarely consider the mechanics of. Dublin-based Anam Technologies is a global leader in this vertical and a critical partner to mobile network operators globally.
A2P SMS creates value for an end client in a number of different ways. Whether it’s promotional content, such as a discount voucher from a restaurant or retail chain, or transactional type content such as an appointment reminder or delivery confirmation.
This will mark a successful exit for the Kelly family who own Anam through Kellysan Enterprises Ltd and for Darragh Kelly and Dr. Noel Kelly who lead the business. Darragh Kelly will be remaining on in the role as CEO after the acquisition.
Source: Anam Technologies
Deal Details: Carbery Group has announced the acquisition of leading savoury flavour and ingredient supplier, Innova Flavors, from Griffith Foods Worldwide.
Deal consideration was not disclosed.
Carbery Group is an international dairy, flavours and nutritional ingredients company headquartered in Ballineen, Co. Cork, Ireland. It is owned by four Irish co-operatives, Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird, and employs almost 800 people, with 1215 local farmer suppliers. Carbery operates from 10 locations including Ireland, the UK, the USA, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand and supplies more than 50 countries worldwide.
Carbery was established in 1965 and remains one of Ireland’s leading producers of award-winning cheeses for the industrial, foodservice and retail sectors.
Innova supplies customised savoury flavours and ingredients to customers around the world. Its manufacturing facilities are based in the Chicago area, as is the HQ of Carbery’s international flavours business Synergy US.
Advisers: None Mentioned
Renatus Comment: This is another great step in Carberry Group’s story. Since the 1990s, the group has pursued an ambitious acquisition programme with the ambition of becoming a leading international supplier of added-value ingredients and flavours. Through a series of acquisitions in the UK, the USA, Europe, South America and Asia, Carbery has successfully built Synergy, its international flavours business.
Recent milestones have been the growth of the Kinetica and Optipep sports supplements brands and the opening of its €78m mozzarella facility in Ballineen, West Cork.
In its financial year to Dec ’20, Carberry Group reported revenue of €459.5m (up 5.8% YoY) and EBITDA of €44.9m (up 1% YoY).
Source: Carbery Group
Deal Details: ABP has reached agreement in principle with Fane Valley Co-op to acquire the remaining 50% holding in its red meat business, subject to approval by the relevant regulatory and competition authorities. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The transaction includes Linden Foods in Northern Ireland and Slaney Foods and Irish Country Meats businesses in the Republic of Ireland. These businesses operated as an ABP/Fane Valley joint venture for the last 5 years.
ABP, founded in 1954 and headquartered in Ireland, is one of Europe’s leading privately owned food processors. It works with 35,000 farmers and contributes an estimated €1.3bn each year into the rural economies in which it operates.
Advisers: None Mentioned
Renatus Comment: ABP Food Group is the market leader in the domestic meat processing market and this acquisition marks another step in the consolidation of the industry. ABP Food Group employs 11,000+ people and has revenues in excess of €3bn.
Linden Foods reported revenue of £200.7m and EBIDA of £4.2m in its most recent financial year to September 2019 while Slaney Foods and Irish Country Meats are unlimited companies which do not disclose financials.
Source: ABP Food Group
Swiss-Irish bakery group Aryzta has completed the sale of the equity and assets of its North American business in the USA and Canada to an affiliate of Lindsay Goldberg LLC.
The transaction, which had a price tag of $850m (€706m), has been completed early, with initial estimates putting the completion date before the end of July.
Source: Irish Times
Following its acquisition of Aldar Tissues in 2019, Zeus Packaging has announced plans to invest €15m into Aldar’s Dublin operations. Zeus Packaging is one of Europe’s largest privately-owned packaging companies. Aldar produces toilet paper and kitchen towels for supermarket and industrial purposes.
€10m of the investment will reportedly be used to build a 100k sq. ft. manufacturing facility n Rathcoole while €5m will be spent on two automated production lines. The ambition is to reduce the dependency on imports to meet Ireland’s demands for paper products, particularly toilet paper.
Source: The Sunday Independent
It has been reported this morning that the management team of Exergyn are considering a sale of the business. Exergyn have developed and patented an emissions-free heat pump that contains no refrigerant gases. The business is currently at prototype stage with a view to moving to commercial stage in the near future. It is led by its co-founder and MD Kevin O’Toole and by its chairman, Tony Ennis.
Management are reportedly considering a sale to Carrier Global. Reports suggest that non-executive investors are unhappy with the prospect of a sole bidder for the business, believing that there is a risk that the business will be undervalued and are demanding more transparency in the process. Collectively shareholders have invested almost €7 million in the business, which in total has around €20 million in investment and grant money.
Source: The Business Post
EBITDA is an accounting term and is often the best indicator of profitability in non-capital intensive businesses before financing and tax are considered. In capital-intensive
Nostra Technologies Ltd, trading as Nostra, are an IT outsourcing partner that develop solutions, identify the best technologies, implement them and support them across a wide range of sectors and industries. The core services include data infrastructure, Managed IT Services, Cloud and Security.
In its financial year to December 2020, the business recognised revenue of c. €14.0m (up 25.7% YoY) and EBITDA of c. €1.2m (up 41.2% YoY). EBITDA converted to a net cash increase of c. €1.75m after c. €1.3m was spent on acquiring intangible assets linked to its acquisition of Brandon Global IT in Q2 2020, offset by new loans totaling c. €2.0m being drawn down. Brandon Global IT’s revenue is not reflected in Nostra’s 2020 performance.
Nostra has experience great growth in recent years, with revenue growing by double digits every year since 2017 when detailed financials were first published. Nostra’s recurring revenue this year passed 55% of total annual revenue and the business has ambitions to hit €22m of revenue in 2021 and get to €50m by 2025 via a 50/50 mix of acquisition and organic growth
Nostra is primarily owned and led by its CEO Kevin O’Loughlin. Other shareholders include Gary Byrne, Barry O’Loughlin and Senan Finucane.
Based in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, J. Ryan Haulage Ltd. trades as The J. Ryan Group which is one of the country’s largest bulk excavation and haulage companies.The company was founded over 40 years ago by Jerry and John Ryan and is still owned and run by the Ryan family today.
In its financial year to August 2020, the business recognised revenue of c. €24.8m (up 25.0% YoY) and EBITDA of c. €7.1m (up 22.5% YoY). Revenue was derived from bulk excavation & haulage (76%), demolition & general contracting (22%) and waste treatment (2%). EBITDA converted to a net cash increase of c. €1.7m with the purchase of fixed assets totalling c. €2.9m being one of the largest cash expenditures.
The business employed an average of 110 people over the year at a cost of c. €4.4m. J. Ryan Haulage Ltd is owned by John, Jerry and Mary Ryan.
Based in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, J. Ryan Haulage Ltd. trades as The J. Ryan Group which is one of the country’s largest bulk excavation and haulage companies.The company was founded over 40 years ago by Jerry and John Ryan and is still owned and run by the Ryan family today.
In its financial year to August 2020, the business recognised revenue of c. €24.8m (up 25.0% YoY) and EBITDA of c. €7.1m (up 22.5% YoY). Revenue was derived from bulk excavation & haulage (76%), demolition & general contracting (22%) and waste treatment (2%). EBITDA converted to a net cash increase of c. €1.7m with the purchase of fixed assets totalling c. €2.9m being one of the largest cash expenditures.
The business employed an average of 110 people over the year at a cost of c. €4.4m. J. Ryan Haulage Ltd is owned by John, Jerry and Mary Ryan.
Who: Kneat, a Limerick-based company that provides software for the life sciences, healthcare and other heavily regulated industries, has secured financing. Kneat provides e-validation software that’s built to drive Good Manufacturing Practice. It includes electronic logbook management, process validation, analytical instrument validation, among others capabilities.
What: Last week Kneat sold a total of 6,708,525 common shares in the company at a price of C$3 in a C$20.1m offering. It also completed a private placement of 666,668 common shares of the company at the issue price to secure a further C$2m.
Kneat is now officially a Canadian company after a reverse takeover in 2015 that led to a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Why: Kneat intended to use the proceeds for growth initiatives and working capital.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Danish energy company Obton and its local partner, Shannon Energy, are to boost their investment in Irish solar projects.
What: The joint venture intend to increase the original €300m investment to €750m.
Why: The plan is to double the amount of electricity that their solar power plants will generate. This will increase the number of jobs its venture is likely to create to 2,000 workers Over five years, Shannon and Obton will now build solar power plants with the capacity to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Bord na Móna has recruited Irish and European lenders.
What: €100m backing comes from Bank of Ireland and the European Investment Bank (EIB) who will each provide half of the funds.
Why: The funding will be used for building a 75 mega watt (mw) wind farm at Cloncreen, Co Offaly. Bord na Móna estimates it could supply enough electricity to power 55,000 homes at full capacity.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Nektr Technologies, a Sligo-based biotechnology company founded in 2017, has raised investment.
What: The company raised €1m from investors and the Western Development Commission providing half of the funding, which comes through €75m Evergreen Investment fund for SMEs, micro-enterprises, social enterprises and community projects across the Western Region.
Why: The funding will allow Nektr to capitalise on the commercial opportunities that it currently has, further develop the other potential applications we have identified, and add additional resources to the business to assist its growth.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Irish electric scooter start-up, Zipp Mobility. Zipp is one of Ireland’s leading micromobility providers. Via its app, people can locate a scooter or bike, scan a QR code and go.
What: Zipp has raised a total of €457,066 to date form 225 investors via Spark Crowdfunding. Zipp’s original target was €400,000. There is still 20 days remaining to contribute to the crowdfunding drive.
Why: The funds will be used to fund growth, particularly in the UK.
Source: The Business Post
Who: Canadian company Sentry, which is led by Cork-native Patrick Kiely, has raised funding. Sentry has developed a unique bio-electrode sensor technology that provides real-time microbial performance monitoring in anaerobic and aerobic wastewater treatment systems.
What: The business has reportedly raised $2m in series A funding.
Why: The funds will be used to ramp up operations with the target of 400 installed systems by 2023 from 80 today.
Source: The Sunday Independent
We in Renatus believe that more important than the deals are the people and we have teamed up with leaders in this field Korn Ferry to provide you with details of key recent executive and board level appointments.
Barry Maloney’s interview on The Renatus Podcast really reminds us that leaders need a lot of things beyond academic prowess, and may not even need it.
He repeated the leaving cert, scraped into an arts course in college and yet went on to be one of Ireland’s most successful professional investors.
It is a reminder to us all when hiring graduates that sorting by academic results is not the right thing to do.
Here is a link to the podacst The Renatus Podcast – Episode 1 with Barry Maloney
137
The Danske Bank Northern Ireland Consumer Confidence Index for Q1 2021, a 13-point increase year-on-year. The biggest factor in increasing confidence levels was the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, according to @IrishTimes
60.8
The AIB Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for April 2021, an increase from March reading of 57.1. Any figure above 50 indicates overall expansion of the sector. @IrishTimes
€12.47bn
The Government’s budget deficit for April 2021, on a rolling 12-month basis, according to the latest exchequer returns published by the Department of Finance. @IrishTimes
26.92%
The year-on-year decrease in the VC activity in Ireland for Q1 2021 amounting to $124.4m (€104.3m) invested in 24 deals, according to the latest Venture Pulse report from KPMG. @IrishTimes
13,629%
The year-on-year increase in the NI car sales for April 2021 amounting to 3,295 new cars sold, up from 24 from April 2020, according to SMMT. @BelTel
20.1%
The year-on-year decrease in the new home completions in Ireland for Q1 2021 amounting to 3,953 completions, according to @CSOIreland
Renatus was established in 2014 to provide growth funding to growing Irish SMEs and to partner with ambitious management teams to help companies reach their full potential.
Renatus targets companies with sustainable earnings of €1m+ and valuations typically in the range of €5m – €20m. Our typical solutions include:
Renatus’ Knowledge Centre
Our Knowledge Centre is filled with insights from some of Ireland’s top business leaders on Succession Planning, Management Buyouts / Buy-Ins, Growth Financing and much more.
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