Dear Reader,
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: Club Travel, Ireland’s largest independent travel company has bought corporate travel firm Atlas Travel Services for an undisclosed sum.
Atlas operates internal units at three of the largest US multinationals in Ireland: Intel, Boston Scientific and Analog Devices. Its 66 staff and the Atlas retail brand will be retained.
Together, the two firms will employ more than 260 people. In 2018 the companies delivered combined revenues of €221.8m.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Club Travel is Ireland’s largest independently-owned travel company and has further strengthened its position with this acquisition as Atlas Travel is ranked third in terms of its business size against Irish-owned travel agents as well as having recently won the 2019 ‘Best ITAA Corporate Travel Agency’ award.
We recently reported on Club Travels FY18 accounts which showed an increase in turnover by 4.7% to c. €152.3m with a post-tax profit of c. €3.3m and a cash balance of c. €56.0m with no debt. Atlas Travel reported turnover of c. €69.4m and a post-tax profit of c. €1.0m in FY18.
Source: Irish Independent
Deal Details: Glendalough Distillery in Co Wicklow has sold its remaining 60% stake to Canadian-owned alcoholic beverage group Mark Anthony Brands International. The financial consideration for the deal has not been disclosed however based on the reported value of the entire business at €20m, the shareholders are set to receive about €12m for the remaining stake.
Founded in 2011, Glendalough produces whiskey and gin from a distillery in Newtownmountkennedy. It is the third-biggest premium gin brand in the country and recently signed a deal with Coca-Cola HBC Ireland to distribute its products.
The main beneficiaries of the sale will be Glendalough directors Barry Gallagher and Brian Fagan who own just under 20 per cent between them. Former Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll, who owns 2.72 per cent of the company, is in line to receive more than €326,000 for his stake in the Irish spirits group.
Led by Davin Nugent, Mark Anthony Brands International was established in Dublin in 2014. It employs 15 staff in Dublin, with plans to double its headcount here next year. The Irish entity is part of the Mark Anthony family of companies based in Vancouver and founded by Anthony von Mandl. Having acquired 40% stake in 2016, Mark Anthony now has full control of the business.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: At 42% of Ireland’s c. €1.5bn beverage export market, Irish whiskey represents the largest segment the market, with 60% of Ireland’s whiskey exports going to North America – which makes sense given that Irish whiskey is a well-established category in America.
Irish whiskey exports grew by c. 8% in 2018 to a reported c. €623m and, according to Bord Bia, whiskey producers are forecasting to export more than 120 million bottles in 2019. Capitalising on this demand is a number of relatively new distilleries with the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland stating that the number of distilleries has grown from four to 21 in the last decade.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: KanDo Medical, an independent Healthcare Solutions Provider, has acquired Fleetwood Healthcare, a Wicklow-based Medical Device Distributor, for an undisclosed sum.
KanDo Medical is a Healthcare Solutions Provider established by David O’Keeffe to bring innovative new products and solutions to the healthcare community in Ireland.
Fleetwood Healthcare was founded in 1995 by Conor and Susan Fleetwood and is a proud partner to some of the worlds most respected and innovative Endoscopy and Surgical Device Manufacturers.
Advisers: KanDo Medical was advised by Jim Mulqueen of Grant Thornton Corporate Finance and by Shannon O’Connor solicitors. Fleetwood Healthcare was advised by FHM Accountants and Felton McKnight solicitors.
Renatus Comment: The medical device distribution space is very lucrative and largely recession proof. Uniphar/Sisk Healthcare swept up a lot of these assets but there are more out there. O’Keefe has had a stellar career in Creganna, CR Bard and Baxter and has taken the risk to leave the comfort of paid employment and has spent some time searching for a platform such as this which he could acquire and help to scale.
Source: KanDo Medical
Deal Details: Open Orphan Plc and hVIVO have reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended offer by Open Orphan Plc for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of hVIVO.
Open Orphan, led by the renowned Dublin dealmaker Cathal Friel is building a leading European rare/orphan disease focused pharma services company and acquired AIM-listed Venn Life Sciences, an integrated drug development consultancy in June 2019.
UK-based hVIVO is an industry leading services provider in viral challenge studies and laboratory service and is one of few providers globally with the capability to offer high-margin challenge studies to its pharma and biotech clients.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Under the terms of the offer, hVIVO shareholders will be entitled to receive 2.47 new Open Orphan shares for every one hVIVO shares. The deal values hVIVO at approximately £12.96m (€15.48m) giving the combined company a market cap of c. £30m (€35.83m).
Open Orphan is planning to raise c. £10m through a share placing in the New Year to part-fund the takeover, with CEO Cathal Friel to underwrite the deal. If the share offering doesn’t raise the funding required, Friel is reported to have provided an effective guarantee for c. €3m to support the deal.
Source: Open Orphan
Deal Details: Irish-owned Anthony Nicholas Group has sold four of its Fraser Hart luxury watch and jewellery showrooms in UK to Watches of Switzerland for c. £31.7m (€36.86m). The transaction is expected to complete in January, subject to working capital adjustments on completion and represents a valuation of 6.3x EBITDA.
The Watches of Switzerland Group is the UK’s leading luxury watch specialist operating in both the UK and US, with a complementary luxury jewellery offer. It has 132 core showrooms across the UK and US. It is the UK’s largest retailer of Rolex, TAG Heuer, Omega and Breitling brands.
Anthony Nicholas Group, founded in 1936 in Dublin, is a jewellery manufacturing and distribution group and a parent company of Fields jewellers.
The four showrooms had combined annual revenue of c. £25.7m (€30.63m) and EBITDA of c. £5.0m (€5.97m) for the financial year ended 24 June 2019. Gross tangible assets subject to the transaction are expected to be in the region of £5.5m.
Advisers: KPMG, William Fry and Michael Hussey of Davy advised on the deal.
Renatus Comment: Anthony Nicholas acquired Fraser Hart from a Scottish family in 2007 for a reported c. £40m, presumably with Anglo debt as it ended up in the Project Evergreen debt book. The core business was clearly very strong as debt was paid down in recent years and the most recent accounts show Net Assets of €24m euro.
Source: The Watches of Switzerland press Release
Australian healthcare group Virtus Health has completed the purchase of the remaining 15% shares in Sims IVF which it didn’t own giving it 100% ownership of the business. The purchase brings the total payout to the Sims IVF founders to a reported €24.35m.
This recent acquisition is the completion of a staged buyout deal which was agreed in 2014 and saw Virtus acquire 70% of the business at the time, with options to acquire the remaining 30%.
Sims IVF was founded by doctors Anthony Walsh and David Walsh in 1997 and operates from three clinics between Dublin and Cork.
The shareholders were on their original deal advised by Katharine Byrne of BDO Dublin.
Source: The Sunday Times
Monaghan-based bottled water manufacturer Celtic Pure, which employs 75 people, is to be wound up. An examiner, Declan McDonald of PwC, was appointed to the firm by the High Court to see if a way could be found to keep the business alive. He has now told the High Court that he no longer believes an investment can be secured to save the company. Mr. McDonald has now been appointed liquidator to the company by Mr Justice Barniville.
Source: Irish Examiner
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.
Voxpro’s CEO joins the board of Smartzone
CEO of Business Operations at Voxpro, Aidan O’Shea, has joined the board of Smartzone. The business which is led by Justin McInerney and headquartered in Cork is a leader in smart technology for homes and businesses in the context of security, energy management and automation. Mr O’Shea joined Voxpro in 2014 having previously worked for Abtran for almost 9 years.
SFA appoints new Chairman
The Small Firms Association has appointed Graham Byrne as its Chairman. Mr Byrne is a senior executive at Private Equity firm, Cardinal Carlyle where he is Managing Director. He previously Bibby Financial Services as its Chief Commercial Officer for Europe.
H&A Marketing & PR appoints new Head of Client Strategy
Cork based H&A Marketing & PR has appointed Peter Murphy as its Head of Client Strategy. In his role, Mr Murphy will lead the marketing team at the firm. He is a former senior executive at Bewleys Coffee, prior to which he worked in brand management roles at Heineken.
Naughton Foundation appoints new board member
The Naughton Foundation, which is the private family foundation owned by the shareholders at Glen Dimplex, has appointed Michael Maher as a director of its shareholder supervisory board. Mr Maher is a senior executive at Glen Dimplex and has worked for the firm for over 20 years as CFO, COO and most recently leading its M&A operations. He is a former Partner at PwC.
Coca-Cola appoints new GM for Ireland
Coca-Cola HBC has appointed Miles Karemacher as General Manager for Ireland and Northern Ireland. He replaces Matthieu Seguin who has moved with the firm to Nigeria. Mr Karemacher has moved from Coca-Cola in Italy where he was Commercial Excellence Director for three years. He previously held senior roles at SAB Miller around Europe.
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.
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Based in Castleknock, Brady’s Dublin Limited is a car dealership that specialises in Mercedes and Seat new and pre-owned vehicles. The company also offers full service and parts facilities. In its most recent financial year, the company saw revenue increase by 8.6% to c. €46.0m with EBITDA increasing by 5.1% to c. €1.2m. The company employed an average of 60 employees at a cost of c. €2.2m in FY18. During the year, the company added c. €245k cash to the balance sheet after significant working capital movements as well as tax paid of c. €205k and a dividend of c. €160k. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. €960k. Net assets were c. €8.9m, up from c. €8.1m the previous year. The company is 100% owned by the Brady family. |
| Standard Brands (Trading) Ireland Limited, which trades as Zip™, is a manufacturer and distributor of a range of high performance and quality ignition offerings for lighting fires, including solid and liquid firelighters and natural fire logs for both indoor and outdoor use. In FY18, the company saw revenue increase by 16.9% to co. €28.5m although EBITDA was down 17.3% to c. €1.9m. The drop in EBITDA was due to decreased gross profit margin as well as an increase in R&D expenses and c. €412k stock written off during the year. The company employed an average of 83 people in FY18 at a cost of c. €3.8m. Cash increased by c. €2.7m after a working capital cash investment of c. €850k and the addition of c. €230k of fixed assets while disposing of c. €3.6m worth of plant and equipment. Cash on the balance sheet was up to c. €3.3m against a debt balance of c. €41k leaving net assets up by 4.0% to c. €29.0m for the year. Northern Irish distribution giant SHS Group bought the Standard Brands business from Graphite capital in July 2017. |
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Who: Greencoat Renewables has raised funds.
What: €125m was raised in share placing.
Why: The share placing programme is intended to give the company greater financial capacity to tap into the secondary market for wind assets in Ireland, while also pursuing opportunities in European markets, where it considering more than €500 million of asset sale processes.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Endeavour Technologies, Internet-of-Things (“IoT”) service provider, with technology to create, measure and manage Service Level Agreements between IoT Service Providers, their IoT Customers and their Service Partners. The business is founded by Brian Carroll who sold his last venture, Arantech, in 2009 for €75.8m.
What: The business has raised c. €2m from a stable of Irish investors including Focus Capital, Jaguar Capital’s Gerry Jennings, Richmond Marketing’s Barry Connolly and Fonua’s Don Maher.
Why: The purpose of the funding was not disclosed however it is believed to be used for expansion.
Source: The Sunday Times
Who: Manna, a drone delivery business focused on fast food delivery and founded by Bobby Healy, former CTO and shareholder of CarTrawler.
What: Healy’s Manna has raised “significant” funding from three international investors, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Dynamo Ventures and Alabaster.
Why: The purpose of the funding was not disclosed however it is believed to be used for expansion.
Source: The Sunday Times
Who: Netshow Capital is a fund launched by an Irish and Spanish investment group FRK Investments.
What: €30m is to be made available over two years. Netshow Capital is seeking to cover up to 30% of the costs in return for intellectual property associated with any television series it invests in.
Why: The fund will be used to back high-budget TV series, focusing on streaming services such as Netflix
Source: Irish Independent
Who: Belfast-based start-up Raylo has received investment.
What: £2.9m (€3.46m) is backed by Macquarie Group, a global provider of banking and other financial services.
Why: The company is planning to disrupt the UK mobile market. Raylo now offers the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with subscriptions starting at £25.99/month, which is lower than many mobile providers.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: Irish cybersecurity start-up Tines has raised a further funds.
What: $11m (€9.87m) comes from venture capital firms Accel and Index Ventures, with participation also from Blossom Capital. This latest injection of cash comes shortly after Tines raised $4.1m (€3.68m) at the end of October.
Why: The funding will be used for global expansion.
Source: Fora
Who: Web Summit agrees investment into Amaranthine Partners, a US-headquartered multi-million dollar venture capital firm. It is led by Patrick Murphy, previously of Goldman Sachs, and Web Summit co-founder David Kelly.
What: $2m (€1.8m) follows an initial investment of $500,000 last year, the last instalment is due in the first quarter of 2021.
Why: Amaranthine Partners is a c. $50m (€44.84m) tech-focused venture capital fund.
Source: Irish Times
Who: SOSV, a venture capital firm founded by tech veteran and former Dragons’ Den star Sean O’Sullivan, has raised its largest fund to date.
What: €248.8m oversubscribed SOSVI fund is almost double the $150m (€134.9m) raised for a preceding fund in 2017 and is also ahead of a previous $250m (€224.9m) target for the fourth one.
Why: It will be used to invest in about 150 new start-ups a year through SOSV’s various accelerator programmes, which cover areas such as hardware, software biology, food, robotics, medical devices, transportation and green energy. Most of the money raised for the new fund will however be deployed in later rounds for its best performers.
Source: Irish Times
Who: The Smart Tech fund, a brainchild of DBIC Ventures, the venture arm of Dublin Business Innovation Centre, has reached a first close in early-stage funding round.
What: €23m has been raised from a number of Irish tech veterans and several institutional investors. It is expected to reach a final close of more than €30m within the next 12 months. It also is backed with a €16m investment by Enterprise Ireland.
Why: The fund will mainly target B2B software companies in areas such as fintech, cybersecurity, healthcare, ICT, smart grid, digital transformation, as well as medical devices.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Sirius Aircraft Investments, a joint venture between Sirius Aviation Capital and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, has secured investment.
What: $100m (€90m) comes from Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners. It’s a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi sovereign Mubadala Investment Company and New York-based Falcon Edge Capital.
Why: The funds will be used for growing Sirius Aviation Investments into a leading mid-life aircraft lessor.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: Irish co-founded electric car rental company UFODrive has secured funding.
What: €2.6m round was led by Elliot Griffin’s boutique investment company BVP, an investor in green and SME businesses. It has completed over €9 million of equity and Green Bond investments this year and is on target to raise a further €5 million in the coming weeks which will be used to back other start-ups
Why: The purpose of the funding was not disclosed however it is believed to be used for expansion.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Circle Voluntary Housing Association (VHA) has agreed a landmark investment package.
What: €51m finance package, structured by Centrus, who acted as financial advisor to Circle, and funded by AIB, provides the housing association with a three-part loan, over a 30-year period, which includes a revolving credit facility, a term loan and a working capital facility. The nature of the agreed package allows Circle VHA to re-use the borrowed funds at any time over the period of the loan, providing a safeguard for ongoing speedy development of social housing.
Why: The funding will provide social and affordable housing for families across the country. Circle VHA plans to deliver 250 homes over the course of the next 12 months through an innovative model of financing.
Source: Press Release
Instead of ‘Thought for the Week’, we have been bringing you a weekly tracker using odds from oddschecker and taking off bookmakers margin to come up with deemed percentage probability of Brexit related outcomes.
With last week’s outcome most bookmakers have stopped taking bets on when Brexit will happen and those that are are effectively saying it is almost certain to be H1 2020.
48.2
The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for November, up from 46.2 in October, showing the industry’s slowdown overall moderated last month. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction. @IndoBusiness
1.8% & 16.3%
3.6 points
The monthly drop in the UlsterBank’s latest purchasing managers’ index (PMI) falling to 47,7 in November, a reading below 50 signals contraction, according to @ulsterbank @irishtimes
1.1 & 4.7%
The year-on-year drop in the agricultural input and output price indices, respectively, for October 2019, according to @CSOIreland
4.2%
The year-on-year increase in the number of passengers handled by main Irish airports for Q3 2019 amounting to almost 11.6m passengers, according to @CSOIreland
3.3%
The forecast growth for the Irish economy for 2020, the lowest since 2013, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) quarterly commentary. @IndoBusines
5%
The year-on-year increase for the Irish GDP for Q3 2019, according to@CSOIreland
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