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You are receiving this mail every week as we see you as a key partner and we look forward to continuing to enjoy our journey with you over the decades ahead.
Please find below this week’s newsletter covering the latest M&A, company performance, fundraisings and executive moves.
Deal Details:
Dublin-based Thornton Group has been sold to UK-based Davies Group for an undisclosed sum.
Thornton Group is a leading claims adjusting and third-party administration business, specialising in property, casualty, energy, marine & engineering and jewellery claims.
Davies is an operations management, consulting and digital solutions provider to global organisations in highly regulated markets. Their services include claims solutions, insurance services along with a consulting and technology offering.
Advisers: Thornton Group received corporate finance advice from the Clearwater International team of John Sheridan, John Devine and Daniel Lavelle.
Renatus Comment:
Davies Group had turnover of c. £77.7m and EBITDA of c. £7.3m in FY18. Davies, which is backed by private equity, has made seven acquisitions this year as it looks to consolidate the industry. Thorntons, which reportedly had profits of c. €880k in FY18 is an ideal bolt-on for Davies due to the overlap in services as well as the local market expertise and the clients it will acquire.
Source: Davies Group Press Release
Deal Details:
BoyleSports, one of Ireland’s largest independent betting chains, has acquired Bruce Betting for an undisclosed sum.
Bruce Betting was established in 1977 and today has 18 stores in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and Westmeath. It also supplies odds to other independent bookmakers and has an online presence and app.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: BoyleSports has been on an acquisition charge in recent times as it looks to acquire market share and geographical presence from other bookmakers. This acquisition of Bruce Betting’s 18 stores, all in Leinster, adds to the acquisition of a number of retail shops in the West of Irelad and an acquisition of 13 stores in the UK. It is currently on the look out for further acquisitions in the UK market.
Source: Sunday Independent
Deal details: It has been reported that Kingspan is in talks to acquire Luxembourg headquarted inflation foam company Armacell. The deal is reported to be worth up to €1.5bn.
Armacell has been in operation since 1954, has a European-wide presence and employs over 3,000 people. Annual sales are reported to be in the region of €610m. Armacell is currently owned by Blackstone and the Kirki family.
If completed, this acquisition would be the largest ever completed by Kingspan and mark a significant milestone for the business.
Source: The Business Post
It is understood that Goodbody Stockbrokers have agreed a deal to sell to a consortium led by Bank of China. According to sources the Chinese are expected to pay up to €155m for the business. Goodbody reportedly has profits of c. €3.1m in 2017, implying a significant effective acquisition multiple.
Davy and Irish Life were also among the final round bidders.
Source: Irish Independent, The Sunday Times
Copper Face Jacks and The Jackson Court Hotel on Harcourt Street, which were put up for sale in March for an indicated asking price of up to €40m, have been withdrawn from market.
The nightclub, established 23 years ago and the 36 bedroom hotel with 7 bars and 3 beer gardens, had attracted strong interest and a sale had been agreed.
Source: RTE
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
Former eir CEO appointed to lead Technicolor plc
Technicolor plc has appointed Richard Moat as its new CEO. He will be based in Paris from where he will lead the business. Mr Moat worked in Dublin for over 6 years leading eir and oversaw its transition from Eircom to the new eir brand. He joined the firm initially as CFO in 2012 before being appointed at CEO in 2014, a role he held until departure from the business last year. Mr Moat previously worked for Orange and t-mobile in senior executive roles during his earlier career.
Paddy Power Betfair to appoint new Chairman
Current chairman of Morrissons, Andrew Higginson, is set to be appointed as Paddy Power Betfair’s new Chairman. Mr Higginson who became a non-executive director at Flutter Entertainment is set to take over from present chairman, Gary McGann, when he retires from the position. It has not been confirmed as to when the appointment will be formally made.
Datalex appoints new Chairman
The CEO of Unity Technology Solutions, David Hargaden, has been appointed as Chairman at Datalex. This follows Sean Corkery’s recent permanent appointment as its CEO having assumed the role in an interim capacity for a number of months prior to that. Mr Hargaden is a former Chairman at CarTrawler and is presently a non-executive director at ding.com. Mr Hargaden is a founder and former Chairman of myHome.ie.
eShopWorld appoints new senior management executives
Irish e-commerce business, eShopWorld, has made a number of senior appointments in recent weeks. David Manifold has been appointed as CFO. Mr Manifold is a former CFO at Oasis, a leading documents management company, and previously assumed an interim CFO role at Bus Éireann. He is a former senior executive at Aer Lingus where he worked for almost 10 years. Conor O’Kane has joined the business as CIO. Mr O’Kane previously worked for Travelport and Mobile Travel Technologies.
Dalata appoints new non-executive director
Dalata, the Irish hotel group, has appointed Elizabeth McMeikan to its board as an independent, non-executive director. Ms McMeikan is currently a senior independent director at UK pub giant JD Wetherspoon. Dalata, whose brands include the Clayton and Maldron hotels, is led by Pat McCann and is currently developing nine new hotels, with approximately 2,400 bedrooms, which will open over the next three years. Having spent her earlier career at Colgate-Palmolive, Ms McMeikan then took up a role with Tesco, where she established Tesco Express in 1994. In 1997, Ms McMeikan was appointed Tesco stores board director for change management and human resources at the grocery giant. Today, she is also a senior independent director at UK-based student accommodation provider Unite Group. She also chairs the board’s remuneration committee. In addition, she is a non-executive director at food company Fresca Group.
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.
Flanagan Timber is one of the country’s largest timber merchants, supplying timber nationally from its HQ in Meath. The business supplies a range of local and imported timber as well as running a timber treatment facility and a hardware store. The family-run operation has been trading since 2001 and has experienced significant growth in recent years. The financial year to March 2019 was no different as the business saw revenue grow by 11.0% to c. €24.3m while EBITDA increased by 24.6% to c. €0.8m. EBITDA converted to a net cash increase of c. €58k to leave an ending balance of c. €313k. Significant working capital movements combined with a c. €150k loan repayment were the primary drains on cash. Flanagan Timbers in equally owned by Alan and Melanie Flanagan.
Rock Road Motors, which trades as Carroll & Kinsella Blackrock, is a Toyota dealership with over 40 years experience supplying both old and new Toyota cars and Commercial Vehicles. The company is based in Dublin with a state-of-the-art showroom located on the Rock road in Blackrock. In FY18, the company had a solid year which saw revenue increase by 7.0% to c. €31.2 while EBITDA jumped 62.1% to c. €1.0m. The large rise in EBITDA was down to the well managed cost of sales which saw gross profit margins increase from 5.3% in FY17 to 6.4%in FY18. During the year, the company employed on average 39 people at a cost of c. €1.9m. Cash decreased slightly by c. €7k after significant movements in working capital as well as a c. €156k loan repayment. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. €2.2m against a debt balance of c. €821k with net assets up 15.2% for the year at c. €5.9m.
Based in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, McHugh Components is wholesale distributor of agricultural machinery components that was established in 1973. FY18 was a good year for the company which saw turnover rise by c. 10% to 14.9m and EBITDA rise by c. 6% to €0.8m. McHugh employs 57 staff at an annual cost of €3.4m up from 56 and €3.1m a year ago, respectively. The cash balance declined from c. €926k to €286k during the period, predominantly due to (1) c. €617k investment into working capital, (2) a €600k CapEx spend and (3) loan repayments of €194k. At the period end, the company c. €1m in debt on its balance sheet. The business is owned by Derek, Graham and David McHugh as well as Elaine Donnelly and holding company Hofskamp Holding Bv.
Who: Emerging markets-focused green energy company Mainstream Renewable Power, founded by entrepreneur Eddie O’Connor, has raised funding.
What: $580m (€522m) debt financing is provided by six banks – CaixaBank, DNB, KfW IPEX-Bank, Natixis, SMBC and Société Générale.
Why: The financing is for key Chilean wind and solar projects to build 571MW of wind and solar farms which will generate enough sustainable electricity to power 680,000 Chilean homes and will displace 656,000 metric tonnes of CO2 each year.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Mid Clare Renewable Energy DAC has secured financing.
What: The long term loan was provided by Bank of Ireland Corporate banking. Financial details of the funding were not disclosed.
Bank of Ireland’s project finance, energy, construction and corporate advice was led by Siobhan McCabe, Simon O Neill, Hugh Cummins and Anna Hickey and Eoghan Doyle in commercial law firm Philip Lee.
Mid Clare Renewable Energy DAC were advised by Bunbury Darcy solicitors
Why: The financing is used for building a 7.1 megawatt REFIT supported wind farm in County Clare. Once fully operational, the wind farm will have the potential to power the equivalent of c. 6250 homes with green/carbon neutral electricity and over its life time is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by c. 400,000 tonnes.
Source: BOI
Instead of ‘Thought for the Week’, we are bringing you a weekly tracker using odds from oddschecker and taking off bookmakers margin to come up with deemed percentage probability of outcomes.
There has been no movement in the probability of when some sort of Brexit occure:
By December ’19 5%
H1 2020 63% (45% Q1 +18% Q2)
H2 2020/2021 13%
Not before 2022 19%
——————————————————————————————
With regard to the outcome of the General Election it seems a toss of a coin whether or not the Conservative s will achieve a majority government.
If you are not in agreement with any of above you can get the odds here and back your opinion: Oddschecker – Brexit
$185m (€165.6m)
The money raised by Irish businesses via venture capital (VC) funding in Q3 of this year, with some 22 VC deals closed in Ireland. According to the latest Venture Pulse from @KPMG_Ireland @IndoBusiness
44.2
4.8%
The unemployment rate for October 2019 amounting to 117,300 unemployed persons in Ireland, according to @CSOIreland
4.1%
The year-on-year increase in Industrial Production in Ireland for September 2019, according to @CSOIreland
87.13%
The year-on-year decrease in the international services trade deficit for 2018 reducing from €43.5b to €5.6b. In 2018 Ireland imported c. €185b of services while it exported c. €180b, according to @CSOIreland
0.7%
The year-on-year rise in the consumer price index for October 2019, according to @CSOIreland
5.6%
The expected growth in the Irish economy for 2019, suggesting the fastest pace of expansion in the EU this year, according to the forecast by the European Commission (EC).
@BelTel
13.7%
The decrease in housebuilding in Dublin in the 3-month period during April, May and June to 1,628 completions, which is the first time the figures have fallen since 2015, according to the latest Dublin Economic Monitor. @irishexaminer
1.4%
1.4% – The forecast for the UK GDP growth for 2019, slight improvement of previously predicted 1.3%, according to the Bank of England latest growth forecast. @BelTel
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