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Please find below this week’s newsletter covering the latest M&A, company performance, fundraisings and executive moves.
Deal Details: The DCC Vital division has sold their Kent Pharma and Athlone Laboratories units, including a manufacturing plant in Co Roscommon, to UK private equity firm Duke Street Capital.
The Kent portfolio contains mainly niche, value-added products, which are complex to manufacture. Duke Street is backing a strong management team at Kent, led by CEO Debashis Dasgupta. Athlone Laboratories is a leading European manufacturer of specialist beta-lactum antibiotics based in Ireland.
Duke Street’s strategy will focus on new product development and expansion into other selected branded generic markets across the EMEA region.
Advisers: DCC was advised by PwC Corporate Finance led by Mark McEnroe, with legal advice from Pinsent Masons led by Andrew Kerr and William Fry led by Eavan Saunders.
Duke Street sourced Kent through its origination team led by Jonathan Irwin. Results Healthcare acted as financial adviser and DLA Piper and Goodwin Procter acted as legal advisers to Duke Street. Liberty Corporate Finance were financial advisors to management.
Renatus Comment: DCC bought Kent Pharma in 2012 for €71.2m. Duke Street has invested over €2.5bn in more than 50 companies over the last 25 years.
Deal Details: Parklands Veterinary Group, a veterinary practice with five branches in Mid Ulster has been sold for an undisclosed sum. The group has been acquired by VetPartners, a British chain based in York which has 107 practices with c. 4,700 staff.
Parklands Veterinary Group”s seven directors are to remain in post at the branches in Cookstown, Dungannon, Coalisland, Aughnacloy and Portglenone. The practice, which employs 30 vets in both small animal and farm veterinary work, also covers the Republic of Ireland. VetPartners said all five sites would remain open.
Last year VetPartners secured funding from international investment company, BC Partners, to support its growth.
Advisers: Pinsent Masons LLP and David Lyttle & Co Ltd advised Parklands Veterinary Group in concluding the deal, while VetPartners was advised by Mills & Reeve LLP and Hazlewoods LLP.
Renatus Comment: This sector is very hot across the water and is about to get hot here. CVS the UK giant has acquired a prestigious equine practice Troytown Greyabbey in Kildare and a large small animal clinic Gilabbey in Cork. The obvious play for investors in this space is to see double digit valuations globally for listed veterinary groups, see succession dilemmas galore locally and roll-up the practices. Similar to Nursing Homes it will eventually end up with more big players and less fragmentation but anyone looking for a quick win roll-up might not find it as easy as it looks on a whiteboard. Our view is there will be winners in a roll-up but it wont be easy.
Source: VetPartners
Deal Details: Todd Architects, the architectural consultancy behind the Titanic Belfast building has been acquired in a management buyout (MBO) led by three existing employees.
Jim Mulholland, Daragh Coleman and Andrew Murray have purchased equity in Todd Architects from existing directors Peter Minnis and Paul Crowe, both of whom will stay with the business in executive roles and remain as major shareholders. The firm currently employs c. 70 people across its three offices in Belfast, Dublin, and London.
Advisers: Todd Architects was advised throughout the transaction by law firm A&L Goodbody and Lanyon advised on the communications.
Renatus Comment: This has been the obvious transaction in professional services i.e. management layer buying owner layer but there are increasingly more transactions where arms-length investors are getting involved in professional services firms.
Source: Todd Architects
Deal Details: Strencom has acquired managed network and cybersecurity company, Baker Security & Networks for an undisclosed sum. Founder Robert Baker was the 100% shareholder of Baker Security & Networks.
Strencom will retain the Baker Security & Networks brand within the Strencom Group, as well as all of Baker Security’s employees, which will bring the company’s headcount to 40. The deal will boost Strencom’s security and networking offering and further the company’s ambition to achieve annual recurring revenue of €50m.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: The wider space of IT, connectivity, storage, security, voice are all converging and we saw Trilogy acquire Zinopy Security last year and increasingly firms will seek to become more full service in their offerings.
Source: Strencom
Deal Details: Gore Street, a London-based energy fund, has acquired 51% of a 160 mega watt portfolio across Ireland from UK investment firm Low Carbon. To fund the acquisition Gore Street plans to raise c. £50m (€56m) through a share placing.
Meanwhile, £31m (€35m) has already been committed for investment in the company. Of this £31m, £6m will be invested as part of the share issue and a further £25m is to be invested by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF). Managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), ISIF is the Irish sovereign wealth fund. It has agreed to provide up to £30m of investment in Gore Street.
Two of the group’s energy projects will be located in Northern Ireland, while a further two projects will be located in the Republic of Ireland. It will cost an estimated £77m to construct the projects. Gore Street has an additional option to purchase a further 190MW portfolio of energy storage projects in Ireland, bringing the total transaction to 350MW.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment:
ISIF’s revised investment strategy, following a 2018 review of the ISIF mandate, according to its website, is guided by the objectives of Project Ireland 2040, to target its future investments in five sectors or priority themes of key importance to the Irish economy:
•Regional development
•Housing
•Indigenous businesses
•Climate change
•Brexit
This appears to tick the energy efficiency box thus helping Climate change.
Source: Gore Street Energy Storage Fund
Deal Details: DIF, through its most recent fund DIF Infrastructure V, has announced the completion of the acquisition of a stake in the Dublin Waste to Energy PPP project. The Project is an operational waste to energy facility supported by a 45-year contract with Dublin City Council. DIF Infrastructure V acquired the stake from Macquarie’s Green Investment Group Limited, who remains a shareholder in the Project.
Located in Poolbeg, Dublin Port, the Project processes 600,000 tonnes of residual waste annually and generates electricity which is exported to Ireland’s national grid – sufficient to power 80,000 homes.
DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with €5.6bn of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles.
Advisers: DIF was advised by Ashurst (Legal), PwC (Financial) including John O’Connor (PwC Ireland) and led by James Pincus (PwC UK), Arup (Technical), SLR (Market) and Grant Thornton (Tax).
Renatus Comment: The facility has been designed to provide highly efficient incineration and is classified as energy recovery in line with EU policy on waste. The project is part of a wider Dublin regional waste management plan, which is aimed at reducing waste, maximizing recycling and generating energy from waste. The Project benefits from the Irish renewable energy feed-in tariff.
Source: DIF
Deal Details: Ashleaf Shopping Centre in Crumlin, Dublin, has been brought to the market by CBRE for €10.75m. Developed originally in 2000, the scheme, which is anchored by Dunnes Stores, currently attracts a footfall of c. 4.5m a year, making it one of the most popular retail destinations for the residents of Crumlin and its large network of well-established residential estates. The potential for a future residential element at the centre is expected to further enhance its appeal to investors.
Source: Irish Times
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 details of key recent executive and board level appointments
BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland appoints director of business development
Robert Murphy has been appointed as director of business development and capital advisory at BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland. Mr Murphy joins the company from Cushman & Wakefield Ireland, where he was head of debt and structured finance. A fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, he worked previously for a number of major financial institutions, including Land Securities plc and Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM), where he structured and executed real estate transactions across numerous European markets. In his new role at BNPRE, Mr Murphy will support all business lines in identifying opportunities for market growth. He will also work alongside the company’s executive board in formulating a business development strategy.
Ocorian appoints senior sales director to Dublin office
Ocorian has appointed Conor Blake as a senior sales director based in Dublin. Mr Blake joins with over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry having previously held senior positions at Sanne Group, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. He will have specific responsibility for raising the profile of Ocorian’s Corporate & Institutional business across Europe.
Avadel Pharmaceuticals Appoints Gregory J. Divis as Chief Executive Officer
Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc, a company focused on developing FT218 for narcolepsy and headquartered in Dublin, has announced the appointment of Gregory J. Divis as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Divis has served as Interim CEO since January 2019. Mr. Divis joined Avadel as Chief Commercial Officer in January 2017. He was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in March 2018 and named Interim CEO in January 2019. Prior to joining Avadel, he served as an Executive in Residence at Linden Capital Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm. From 2010 to 2014, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Lumara Health, a speciality branded pharmaceutical company focused on women’s health, where he led the successful turnaround and transformation of the business resulting in a series of transactions culminating in the sale to AMAG Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Mr. Divis served as Vice-President, Business Development & Lifecycle Management at Sanofi-Aventis and as Vice-President and General Manager, UK and Ireland, for Schering-Plough Corporation.
Deliveroo Appoints New General Manager For Ireland
Deliveroo, the food delivery app service, has announced that Michael Healy, formerly Chief Marketing Officer of FTSE 250-listed The Restaurant Group, has taken over the reins for Deliveroo as General Manager in the Republic of Ireland. Mr Healy has significant experience in e-commerce having previously been Commercial Director at Paddy Power.
Google appoints UK and Ireland Communications Director
Jenny Jamie joined Google UK and Ireland in March, and reports into EMEA communications and public affairs head Tim Chatwin. She has spent most of her career at Blue Rubicon (now Teneo), an agency she joined as one of the first 20 staff in 2004, working her way up to managing director in 2016 until leaving in 2019. At Teneo, Ms Jamie co-founded the strategic consultancy function and has worked on blue-chip clients Virgin Atlantic, Samsung and Tesco
Helen Dixon re-appointed as Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner for a second five-year term
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon, has been re-appointed for a second five-year term. The announcement was made by the government months before the expiry of her first term in the role. Ms Dixon was initially appointed to the office of the Irish DPC in 2014, succeeding Billy Hawkes. She previously served as Irish Registrar of Companies after having held senior roles in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. She spent the first ten years of her career in the IT industry.
BDO appoints four new Partners
BDO has announced the appointment for four new Partners – Fionn Uíbh Eachach, Partner Indirect Tax; Rory O’Keefe, Partner, Transaction Advisory Services; Angela Fleming, Partner, Tax; Stephen McCallion, Partner, Audit.
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 businesses EBIT or EBITDA less average Capital Expenditure are often better measures. YoY is an acronym for the year-on-year movement in turnover, EBITDA, etc.
Ikea is a homes furnishing retailer offering a wide range of products at affordable prices. Despite a c. 9% increase in sales to €181m, EBITDA declined by 50% during the period due to a four percentage point decline in gross margins. The company employs 720 staff at an annual cost of c. €21.5m. During the period the company spent c. €2.3m on CapEx, the majority of which was classified as plant and machinery. There’s c. €2m of cash on the balance sheet against a closing debt balance of €27.5m and the company spent €1.1m on interest payments during the period. The group paid a €9m dividend in FY18, down from €10m a year earlier. The company is ultimately owned by the Stichting INGKA Foundation, a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish billionaire and founder of IKEA.
Based in Tallaght, Aqua Engineering Limited is a mechanical engineering services provider that was established in 1999 and trades under the name Tritech Engineering. They’ve worked on projects such as the Reflector Building in Hanover Quay as well as Clancy Quay. The company saw a sharp rise in revenue for FY18, with revenue increasing by c. 44% to €24.5m, however, EBITDA declined by c. 5% to €1.2m. The decline in EBITDA can be traced to a decline in gross margins as a result of competitive tendering processes. This is an asset-light business with only €400k of fixed assets and €60k spent on CapEX during the year. The company had €3m of cash on the balance sheet at the period end and less than €10k of debt. The company didn’t pay any dividends during the year, versus €660k which was paid out last year. The company is led and owned equally by three Directors Joe Delaney, Peter Keane and Tom Comerford.
Bemis Healthcare Packaging Limited is a Derry-based manufacturer of sterile barrier systems for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The company has factories in more than 12 countries. Accounts for the Irish entity show that for the period ending Dec’18 the company generated £64m of revenue, up c. 11% year-on-year, and EBITDA of £13.4m, up c. 16% year-on-year. Despite headcount reducing by four people to 282, staff costs increased by c. £800k for the period. £2.9m was spent on CapEx during the year, £1.8m of which is classified as “Assets under Construction”. There’s £9.3m of an overdraft on the balance sheet and £22.4m cash in the bank. Interestingly, Bemis is currently completing a merger with Amcor Limited, an Australian listed group. A condition of receiving EU Commission approval on the deal is that the Bemis has to divest three of its plants in Ireland and the UK, including Bemis Healthcare Limited and the company is currently being prepped to be sold.
Who: Yield Lab, an agtech venture capital and accelerator firm, has launched a new investment fund.
What: The fund’s €21m first close is backed by a €10m investment from Enterprise Ireland, €4m from AIB, and three leading private family offices.
Why: The fund will invest in companies that improve the sustainability of food production, helping to reduce the contribution of the sector to climate change and environmental pollution. It is planned to raise further capital for the fund over the next 12 months.
Source: Yield Lab
Who: Outdoor adventure business Go Ape has launched a hunt for new investment.
What: Corporate finance firm Livingstone Partners has been hired by the family-owned business to seek out prospective investors, with the hope of securing investment by the end of 2019.
Why: They want to develop on existing business activities with plans to double the size of Go Ape over the next five years.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: Step, a mobile banking start-up aimed at teenagers. has secured funding.
What: Online payments company Stripe has led a $22.5m (€20m) funding round for Step. The funding round was also supported by existing investors Crosslink Capital, Collaborative Fund and Sesame Ventures, as well as a number of well-known personalities.
Why: Stripe’s backing comes as the company founded by Limerick-born brother Patrick and John Collison said it had teamed up with MasterCard and Evolve Bank to develop the Step Card, which it is hoped will soon be US teenagers’ first spending card and first bank account.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Amaranthine Partners, a new Irish VC fund co-founded by Web Summit’s Paddy Cosgrave and ex-Goldman Sachs Patrick Murphy, has received backing from Draper Esprit, the stock market quoted VC fund. The investment by Draper Esprit in Amaranthine Partners is part of its strategy of investing in early-stage funds in order to get access to deals with promising start-ups.
What: The value of the investment by Draper Esprit into Amaranthine Partners has not been disclosed.
Why: Amaranthine Partners has the stated mission to “connect, support and invest in the world’s top technologists.”. It is reported that to date, the fund has raised $24m from 34 investors.
Source: The Sunday Times
Who: Contego Sports, a Galway-based business that has developed a headguard for sports players has raised new investment from Elkstone Capital and a group of European angel investors. Contego’s headguards are used by athletes in rugby, Australian rules, mixed martial arts and footballers. The business was founded by husband and wife team Marc and Sandra Ganly.
What: The value of this particular investment round is not reported, however, it is reported that including this investment round, Contego has to date raised €2m.
Why: Contego Sports will use the funds to get regulatory approval for its “highly scientific” N-Pro headguard in America and pursue further R&D.
Source: The Sunday Times
Who: iQaute, a Dublin-based technology start-up which specializes in IT operations and Service Management software for large enterprises. The business is led by CEO Patrick McNally.
What: The business has recently completed a €1.6m funding round, which included Sir Michael Smurfit, Glen Dimplex executive Roderick Ryan and Vincent and Justin Carton. Last year, the business also successfully raised €5.5m.
Why: Use of the new fundraising has not been explicitly reported.
Source: The Sunday Times.
Who: Vromo, a Dublin-based software company providing solutions for the food delivery industry. The business was formerlly known as WeBringg which was co-founded by Alan Hickey and Sean Murray. The business pivoted from its previous model of delivery services to be a software-only business.
What: The business has recently completed a €2m funding round. Investors include Ergo’s John Purdy, former Just Eat International director Brian Hickey and other private investors.
Why: The new funds will be used to fund the rebrand of the business to Vromo and also to support the hiring of staff to support the development of its software offering.
Source: The Sunday Business Post.
Who: Sisu, a doctor-led cosmetic treatment chain co-founded by Dragon’s Den Pat Phelan, and doctors James and Brian Cotter.
What: The business is reported to be in talks to raise €50m in private equity funding. Existing backers in the business include Silicon Valley Bank’s Barry O’Brien, PCH Technologies founder Liam Casey and Voxpro founders’ Linda and Dan Kiely.
Why: The new funds will be used to support and accelerate the companies roll-out plans to enter the US and UK markets. The company has ambitions to grow from its existing five locations in Ireland to 100 within three years.
Source: The Sunday Independent.
Who: Vrai, a Dublin-based developer of virtual and augmented reality content for brands like Samsung. The business was founded in 2017 by CEO Niall Campion.
What: The business has completed a €600k seed-funding round. This follows the recent appointment of former Bord na Mone MD Gabriel D’Arcy as Chairman of Vrai. D’Arcy has also invested in the business as part of its funding round.
Why: New funds will be used to support the continued expansion of the business.
Source: The Sunday Business Post.
Who: World Remit, an online money transfer service that provides international remittance services to migrant communities around the world. The business is run my Irish executive Breon Corcoran. Corcoran was the former head of Paddy Power Betfair.
What: The business has recently completed a $175m (€155m) Series D fundraise, valuing the business at $900m. The funding round was led by TCV, Accel and Leapfrog. TCV’s investment was led by Irish man John Doran, a partner with TCV.
Why: New funds will be used to support the continued expansion of the business.
Source: The Sunday Times.
Who: Immedis, a global payroll company that is part of Terry Clune’s Taxback Group. The business was originally set up by Taxback Group to simplify the payment of wages of overseas staff of Irish multinationals. It was spun out as a standalone subsidiary of the Group in 2016. The business is now run by CEO Ruairi Kelleher.
What: The business has recently completed a €25m fundraise with London-based Scottish Equity Partners (SEP). The deal will see SEP take up a minority position in the business and values the business at between €160m – €170m.
A&L Goodbody’s Richard Grey and Declan Cunningham advised Immedis and SEP was advised by Arthur Cox’s John Matson and Sophie Frederix.
Why: Immedis’s growth ambitions from the investment are best described by CEO Kelleher: “we didn’t take on the investment to significantly ramp up a sales and marketing function, we took it on to deliver what we describe internally as ‘sustainable hyper-growth’.”
Source: The Sunday Independent.
I have been slowly reading Galbraith’s book on the Great Crash 1929 and one of the features in the run-up to the crash was mass M&A activity. A line to describe the hubris among buyers and mergers was: “In the twenties, a man in downtown New York or Chicago could take unabashed pride in the fact that (s)he was a financial genius. The local owners and managers were not. There was no false modesty when it came to citing the advantages of displacing yokels with a central management of decent sophistication.” This confidence was mostly misplaced and came unstuck. This is the biggest challenge for any of us in M&A – preserving the core and DNA of businesses we invest in and try and grow. We try and make sure if the founder is currently involved that they stay involved in a meaningful way.
3%
The estimated rise in house prices in Ireland for this year and next, according to ratings agency @FitchRatings. @IrishTimesBiz
5.7%
The year-on-year rise in tax revenues for the first five months of the year compared to the same period of 2018, accumulating to €21.7bn in revenues, but still €253m below the Department of Finance’s target.
@IrishTimesBiz
31.6%
The year-on-year rise in the number of housing commencements for the first quarter of 2019, showing 58,000 commencements, according to the latest Housing Market Monitor by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland.
@RTEbusiness
4.4%
The Irish unemployment rate for May 2019, down from 4.6% in April and a year-on-year decrease of 1.4% from May 2018, according to
@CSOIreland
52%
The growth of foreign direct investment in Ireland between 2017 and 2018, with Ireland winning 205 FDI commitments last year, according to the annual EY European Attractiveness Survey.
@IndoBusiness
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