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: The proposed acquisition by East Cork Oil Company (ECO) of Rimbrook Ltd has been cleared by the CCPC. East Cork Oil Company distributes fuel products (retail and non-retail), primarily in the Munster area, through a network of 22 company owned depots, as well as operating two service stations in Co. Cork. Rimbrook Ltd, through its subsidiary Vale Oil Limited, distributes fuel products through its 6 depots in Tipperary, Waterford and South Leinster.
Advisers: John Curtin of Clearwater International led the transaction. Deloitte’s Munster Financial Advisory team, led by Ronan Murray, provided transaction services to ECO. George Kennedy of HOMs provided legal advise to Vale and Justin Fennell of PJ O’Driscolls provided legal advice to East Cork Oil.
Renatus Comment:ECO is one of Ireland’s largest fuel distributors and the deal marks ECO’s latest consolidation of the fuel distribution market. It operates Ireland’s largest deepwater oil terminal at Foynes through its 50% ownership. Vale Oil recorded revenues of c.€28m in 2018
Deal Details: Dublin-based video-game company Keywords Studios has acquired Descriptive Video Works for CAD$3.2m (€2.1m). Established in 2003 and based in Vancouver, Canada, Descriptive Video Works’ provides audio description services. The company works primarily with broadcasters and streaming media providers in Canada and the USA.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment:In April Keywords acquired Japanese group Wizcorp for JPY120m (€953,000). That followed on from the eight acquisitions made by Keywords last year. The group has plans to buy a similar number this year, with a focus on marketing, engineering and audio companies. In 2018 the group saw its revenue jump 66% to €250.8m. On a like-for-like basis revenue increased 10% last year.
Source: Keyword Studios
Deal Details: McCloskey International Group, which employs c. 400 people in Tyrone, is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of portable screening and crushing equipment. It has been acquired by Finnish company MetsoGroup, in a deal believed to be worth $450m (£354m).
Paschal McCloskey, who is originally from Derry, established the business in 1985 and returned to Tyrone in 2004 to acquire a company called Viper, which was later renamed McCloskey International.
The Northern Ireland entity reported turnover of £111m and EBITDA of just under £10m in its latest accounts to September 2018. In 2009 its revenue was £22m and it has grown consistently since.
Advisers: The corporate finance team at business advisory firm ASM advised on the acquisition and led the negotiation and completion of the deal.
Renatus Comment: Powerscreen founded by Lee Mallaghan and Pat O’Neill was the leader in this space and McCloskey and Sandvik have become real competitors of scale. There are also smaller companies, many infused with ex Powerscreen employees. It proves that with both engineering excellence and a reasonable cost base Northern Ireland is a great base for these kind of companies.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Deal Details: Glantus has been acquired by London-based data business intelligence company Dynistics Ltd in a deal worth £1.75m (€1.9m). With offices now in London, Dublin and New York, the Glantus team are seeking opportunities in the education sector. Established in 1994, Glantus provides software solutions and artificial intelligence (AI), with clients such as Chill Insurance, CityJet, Paddy Power and Toyota. Dynistics provides software and services to a range of industries, the education sector in particular.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: Glantus Technology Holdings Limited appears to be the holding company which is owned 50% by Maurice Healy, 25% by Geoff Keating and 20% by Andrew Frazer.
Source: Glantus
Deal Details: Ryanair Holdings, Europe’s largest airline group, has agreed to purchase Malta Air, a Maltese start up airline. This investment into Malta Air will allow Ryanair to grow its already sizable presence in Malta and access non-EU markets, such as North Africa, from Malta.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: Unlike the majority of other Irish plc success stories, Ryanair’s growth has been achieved without any material acquisitions. They are generally an organic growth machine but have had a shift in strategy with the completion of its acquisition of Laudamotion earlier this year and now the acquisition of Malta Air.
Source: Ryanair
Deal Details: Hauck & Aufhäuser AG has acquired a majority stake in Crossroads Capital Management Limited (CCM) via its subsidiary Hauck & Aufhäuser Fund Services S.A. in Luxembourg. CCM is an Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) Dublin-based company, specializing in a range of services for investment managers and fund promoters across Europe.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment:
This acquisition is a strategic step as Ireland is an important hub for the launch and international distribution of investment funds, and is the second largest European hub after Luxembourg, with €4.6tn assets under administration.
Source: Hauck & Aufhäuser
Deal Details: Up to 25 Irish accountancy firms have joined the Xeinadin Group, a network of more than 120 accountancy firms in the UK and Ireland.
Xeinadin is an integrated network of accountancy services firms where Xeinadin and member firms take reciprocal shareholdings in each other. Xeinadin will provide members with pooled resources, cost efficiencies, economies of scale and access to a network of specialist service providers.
These cross-shareholdings provide a pathway for an eventual buyout of the member firms by Xeinadin.
Irish members include Crowley & McCarthy and O’Connor Pyne in Co. Cork.
Advisers: Joe McVeigh of Baily Homan Smyth McVeigh acted for the Irish firms in the consolidation and Nick Metcalf of Mason Hayes & Curran acted for Xeinadin.
Renatus Comment: There are a number of professional services sectors experiencing consolidation in Ireland at the moment. Shared resources and efficiencies of scale can unlock value in a larger group. Importantly, it can also provide a means for people-led businesses to unlock the value they created within their business. Roll-ups are already happening in the insurance, dental, veterinary and GP sectors.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal Details: ReproMed, an Irish group of fertility clinics led by Declan Keane, has acquired a group of five private pregnancy and gender scan clinics, Babyscan.
Deal terms were not reported.
Babyscan was founded in 2006 by Paula Tunney and Rita Heuston. Tunney is reported to be retaining a minority interest as part of the deal.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: ReproMed was founded in 2009 by Declan Keane. In 2016, he sold a 51% stake to FutureLife, a company owned by an investment fund linked to Andrej Babis, prime minister of the Czech Republic.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal Details: J&M Cleary, a historic Dublin pub closely associated with Michael Collins, the War of Independence and scenes in a number of films and TV programmes, is for sale with a €2.75m guide price. As well as the going concern pub business, it also comes with retail and residential investments with rental income potential of c. €80,000 a year. Located close to the railway bridge on Amiens St, and across the road from Connolly Station in Dublin 1, it is also close to the International Financial Services Centre and Busáras.
Source: Irish Independent
Deal Details: Enda O’Coineen, owner of The Sunday Business Post, is reported to have expressed interest in now acquiring the RTE Guide. KPMG is leading a review of the magazines strategic options, with a sale expected to be the likely outcome but no formal sales process has commenced yet.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal Details: Irish Life is reported to be in takeover talks with a number of independent financial advisers. The talks are part of a new strategy by Irish Life to secure greater control over the distribution of wealth management services. Irish Life has a 34% share of the retail life insurance and pensions market and control over distribution will be important to maintaining its market position.
Source: The Sunday 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
Dillon Eustace appoints Partner in asset management and investment funds practice
Dillon Eustace has appointed Shane Coveney as a Partner in the firm’s Asset Management and Investment Funds Practice. With over 10 years’ experience, Mr Coveney’s practice focuses on the structuring, establishment and operation of Irish regulated investment funds with particular expertise in exchange traded funds, UCITS and alternative investment funds and advising on the significant legal and regulatory developments impacting asset managers and fund promoters.
Costa Coffee appoints new Managing Director of Ireland & UK
Costa Coffee has announced the appointment of Neil Lake as the new Managing Director of Costa Coffee for Ireland & the United Kingdom. Mr Lake, who joined Costa Coffee in September 2018 as Retail and Operations Director, relocated from Australia where he worked as a Senior Executive for Coles Supermarket.
Rent the Runway appoints Dorothy Creaven as Managing Director for Ireland
Rent the Runway has announced the appointment of Dorothy Creaven as Managing Director & Site Lead for Ireland at their new European HQ in Galway. This appointment comes shortly after Rent the Runway announced the opening of their new technology office in Galway city and the creation of 150 product and software development jobs. This is the US-based company’s first international office and Ms Creaven joins Rent the Runway with a background in software engineering, which includes being recognised as one of Ireland’s top 25 female engineers in 2017.
New Business Director at IVECO for Ireland & UK
Sascha Kaehne is to lead IVECO in Ireland and the UK following his appointment as the new Business Director. Mr. Kaehne is relocating from Madrid where he has been Business Director for the Italian Commercial Vehicle EMEA Heavy Trucks brand’s since 2017. Prior to this he was Managing Director for IVECO Trucks Germany for four years, following a series of senior sales and marketing roles for both the truck and bus business divisions across Europe.
Arthur Cox appoints four new partners
Law firm Arthur Cox with offices in Dublin, Belfast, London, New York and Silicon Valley, has appointed four new partners in Northern Ireland. David Black, Cahal Carvill, Mark Jameson and Chris Milligan have all been appointed as Partners at the firm’s Belfast office. Mr Black, a litigation and dispute resolution lawyer, acts on behalf of local and international organisations on a wide range of litigation matters. He represents medium and large scale businesses across a broad range of sectors in commercial and regulatory actions. Mr Carvill is a member of the infrastructure, construction and utilities team at Arthur Cox involved in a full range of construction and engineering projects. He also advises on health & safety and environmental and planning matters. Mr Jameson is a commercial property lawyer with experience across a broad spectrum of property matters, with a particular emphasis on retail, development and investment work. Mr Milligan, who is also a commercial property lawyer, advises a wide range of clients on acquisitions and disposals, land assembly and development, investment and financing and management of property assets.
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.
Ken Black operates 5 toy stores in Portlaoise, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny and Jervis St, Dublin. For FY18, turnover increased by 4.3% over the year to c. €16.5m while EBITDA decreased by 12.1% to c. €2.8m. The decrease was driven by a c. €300k increase in administrative expenses combined with a slight deterioration in gross margins. Taxes of c. €422k and the repayment of loans totalling c. €2.9m were the most significant draws on cash which resulted in a net cash decrease of c. €600k for the year. There was an ending cash balance of c. €3.8m. At the end of FY18, net assets stood at c. €16.1m for the company which is wholly owned by Kenneth Black.
Originally founded in Scotland in the 18th century, the Drummond family set up a similar but separate operation in Ireland centred around the selling of seeds and animal feed. Today, the business also trades in grain, fertiliser and chemicals and has a manufacturing facility in Ireland. In their most recent financial year, the company saw turnover increase by 2.0% to c. €54.3m while EBITDA decreased by 4.3% to c. €2.7m. Elsewhere, the company spent c. €543k across a number of fixed assets, paid taxes amounting to c. €370k and repaid c. €800k of loans. These expenditures, combined with working capital movements, resulted in Drummonds ending the year with a net cash decrease of c. €231k to leave an ending cash balance of c. €1.8m. Net assets were c. €14.3m at the end of the year for the company which is owned by Liam Woulfe and Thomas Browne.
Donegal-based Frames Direct has been supplying Ireland and Europe with doors, windows and frames for over 40 years. For FY18, the company which employed an average of 161 people, saw turnover increase by 18.5% to c. €28.1m and EBITDA increase by 31.5% to c. €4.8m. 79.2% of sales were domestic with the remainder to various EU countries. The company spent c. €2.6m, primarily on land & buildings, and paid taxes of c. €430k which, along with working capital movements, were the principal drains on cash. The business finished the year with a net cash increase of c. €864k to leave an ending balance of c. €6.0m. Frames Direct had net assets of c. €14.2m at the end of FY18 and is owned by Doherty family members Patrick, Rena and Quentin.
Who: Elgin Energy, the UK’s leading independent solar developer, has secured funding for a portfolio of their late stage pipeline.
What: Elgin Energy partnered with Jack O’Keefe in Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland to raise funds to progress development on their UK projects. £4.3 million was raised in this first fundraise, which closed this month. A significant further fundraise is proposed for later this year.
Eoghan Doyle and Hugo Grattirola of Philip Lee solicitors Dublin advised Cantor Fitzgerald. Gordon McElroy of MK Law Belfast acted for Elgin Energy.
What: The funding will be used towards the installation of new projects which are expected to begin in 2020/2021.
Source: Elgin Energy
Who: Vectra, an artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity company, with has a presence in Dublin, has secured funding.
What: The company has secured a $100m (€88.4m) funding round, with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) reportedly investing c. €5m. It’s the second time that ISIF has backed the San Jose-based company, having invested c. €10m in the company last year to support the development of a research and development centre in Dublin.
The $100m fundraiser was led by TCV, one of the largest growth equity firms backing private and public tech companies.
Why: Vectra will use the investment to accelerate global market expansion and R&D innovation, solidifying its Cognito platform as the market-leading solution for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cloud security using network detection and response.
Source: Vectra
Who: The Teeling Whiskey Distillery in Dublin has secured funding.
What: Fáilte Ireland has provided Teeling with €200,000 as part of its Dublin Surprising Stories grant scheme.
What: The funding will be used to further develop its facilities, having welcomed 425,000 visitors since opening in 2015, and achieving revenues of c. €13m over that period.
Source: The Irish Times
Who: Belfast tech firm Datactics secures investment.
What: The firm, which provides regulatory technology to the banking and financial services sector, is benefiting from a £1.2m cash injection from Kernel Capital and Par Equity. This is the second round of funding secured by the company from The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI) in the past 18 months.
Why: This investment will allow the Company to invest further in its innovative product suite and will help support its ambitions to scale into international markets.
Source: Datactics
Who: Tech start-up Xpand has secured an investment.
What: The firm has secured €1m (£0.9m) for product development from the European Institute of Technology and Innovation (EIT).
Why: Following the investment, Xpand will be developing its insights programme, which is designed to support development by planning and addressing the needs of economies.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: IRES REIT, the Dublin-listed property investment company and the State’s largest landlord.
What: IRES raised €134.2m in a share placing on Thursday. Jonathan Simmons and his team in Investec were sole sponsor on the deal and joint global co-ordinator with Davy. The company also exercised its option to extend committed credit facilities from its banking partners from €450m to €600m.
Why: The new capital raised will be used to fund the €285m acquisition of a portfolio of 815 apartments, mainly in Dublin, from Marathon Asset Management. Post-completion of the transaction, IRES will have a portfolio of 3,568 residential units in the State.
Source: IRES REIT
Who: Scion Spirits, maker of Coole Swan liqueur.
What: Coole Swan maker has raised €2.9m in new funding. The bulk of the funding came from founder Mary Sadlier and also €430k from London-based Sarah Carter.
Why: New funding will be used to pursue its expansion plans.
Source: The Sunday Times
Who: XOcean a Louth-based company founded in 2017 by CEO James Ives that has developed drone boats to map the seabed.
What: XOcean has secured a €500k investment from Chris Huskilson, the former CEO of listed Canadian energy group Emera. Huskilson has also become chairman of XOcean.
Why: Funding will support the continued growth of the business.
Source: The Sunday Times
Bookmakers make Labour 6/4 (i.e. somewhere north of 35% probability) to have the most seats in Westminster in the next General election. Given a general election is very likely in the next year or two, anybody thinking of selling their business living in North of Ireland or across the water should read this and realise their £10m entrepreneurs Capital Gains tax relief could be slashed. The bottom of this article has nine suggestions for how business owners should prepare for a possible Corbyn Government https://www.financialdirector.co.uk/2019/02/18/fear-of-a-corbyn-government/
3.3%
The year-on year rise of average annual earnings in Ireland for 2018, which was €38,871. Meanwhile the average annual earnings for full-time employees was €47,596 & part-time employees earned an average of €17,651.
@CSOIreland
12%
The premium paid by tenants for properties close to the Dart stations and Luas stops per month for the first three months of 2019, accounting for an average rent of €2,002 a month and a €3,336 premium per year. According to
@daftmedia. @IndoBusiness
€335,000
The average price people are expecting to pay for a new home in Ireland in the next few years, €74,000 more than the average cost of a home now, according to a survey commissioned by Dublin-based Lotus & conducted by Red C.
@IndoBusiness
54.9
The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index for May 2019, down from 56.6 in April, any reading over 50 indicates expansion. According to the latest PMI survey.
@IndoBusiness
7.0%
The decrease in new private cars licensed in the five months to May 2019 versus the same period last year. Meanwhile, used private cars licensed (or imports) have increased by 3.5% of the same period.
@CSOIreland
3.3%
The year-on year increase of goods handled in Irish ports between 2017-2018, with 55.1m tonnes of goods handled in Irish ports in 2018 alone.
@CSOIreland
5.5%
The year-on year increase in the total number of trips made by overseas residents to Ireland for Q1 2019, rising to 2.027m trips in Q1 2019 from 1.921m in Q1 2018.
@CSOIreland
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