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: Arkphire announced the acquisition of Trilogy Technologies Group for an undisclosed sum.
Established in 2009, Trilogy Technologies is one of Ireland’s leading independent ICT Managed Services providers. In 2018, Trilogy expanded its managed security services with the acquisition of Zinopy.
Arkphire is a leading IT product procurement and IT services company with operations in Dublin, London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.
Arkphire has an unrivalled network of partnership accreditations with leading global IT vendors and is a Dell EMC Titanium, HP Platinum, Lenovo Platinum, Microsoft Gold and Cisco Gold Partner and the only Apple Authorised Enterprise Reseller (AAER) headquartered in Ireland.
Advisers: Arkphire was supported on the acquisition deal by IBI Corporate Finance with Trilogy Technologies working with Mazar’s Corporate Finance team.
Renatus Comment:
Revenues of the combined group are expected to be close to €150m and employing 220 people.
The acquisition was driven by two main aspects – further scaling for Arkphire and obtaining skill sets in cybersecurity, which is down to Trilogy acquiring cybersecurity company Zinopy last year.
Source: Arkphire Press Release
Deal Details: Accenture forms strategic alliance with TradeIX via minor equity investment. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
TradeIX, headquartered in Dublin with offices in London, Kettering and Singapore and operations in Germany and the US, is an award-winning technology provider and network operator of the Marco Polo Network. Its clients include BNY Mellon, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, ING, Standard Chartered Bank, AIG, Oracle, and DHL.
TradeIX uses distributed ledger technology, Blockchain, to facilitate the flow of goods, services, transactions and information within a secure environment for global trade. A distributed ledger is a database that is consensually shared and synchronised across multiple sites, institutions or geographies. It allows transactions to have public ‘witness’, thereby making a cyberattack more difficult.
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Accenture employs 492,000 people in more than 120 countries.
As part of the agreement, Accenture will work with TradeIX to bring to market new use cases, beyond banking, to address the needs of buyers and sellers within trade finance.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: This strategic alliance further strengthens Accenture’s position within the Blockchain sector as they continue to help companies connect to the Blockchain with real-world applications from the leaders in distributed ledger.
Source: Accenture Press Release
Deal Details: Keywords Studios has acquired Montreal-based Syllabes, Creative Agency ICHI and a machine translation tech company KantanMT for €11.2m.
Keywords Studios is Dublin-based international technical and creative services provider to the global video games industry and beyond.
Syllabes, founded in 2004 in Montreal, provides audio recording and casting services for the video games industry in both French and English, as well as for a range of media and entertainment partners.
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, ICHI provides a full suite of creative and marketing services to video game publishers and to the sports and entertainment sectors around the world.
KantanMT is a leading developer of automated translation technology with its own suite of Neural Network Machine translation engines. KantanMT was founded in 2012 and hosts 3,500+ machine translation engines and 1.3 trillion words of training data on behalf of its clients. It is based at Dublin City University’s ADAPT Centre in Ireland, a leading research institute in the field of machine translation.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment:
Including these three companies, Keyword Studios has acquired and integrated 22 companies over the last three years, according to the company’s website – a very impressive feat. These acquisitions are solidifying Keywords’ position in a very attractive industry. The video game industry is reported to be a $152bn market growing at an estimated 9% per annum. The outsourcing market, which Keywords operates in, is highly fragmented with the majority of operators offering one or two service lines with limited geographical reach. Meanwhile, Keyword has over 50 studios located in 40 cities worldwide in 21 countries offering a full outsourced solution to game developers. This allows it to offer a very compelling value proposition to the large game developers in particular.
Source: Keywords Studios Press Release
Deal Details: 4site Design Consultants Limited has been acquired by the UK’s Indigo Telecom group. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Indigo Telecom designs, installs and maintains international telecom and data networks which facilitate the delivery of fixed line, broadband, mobile and other data services to a wide variety of end users.
Limerick-headquartered 4site is a specialist provider of mobile wireless and fibre services. These services include the survey, planning, design and build of wireless and fibre network infrastructure supported by its Limerick based fibre design centre of excellence opened in 2017.
Advisers: Deloitte Financial Advisory Partner Ronan Murray provided Lead M&A advisory services to the shareholders of 4Site. Kerry-based legal firm PMCL with Niall Lucey & Alex Hoffman provided legal support.
LK Shields acted for Indigo Telecom Group Limited. Jennifer McGuire, Partner, led the LK Shields team with assistance from James Byrne, Andrew Power, Karla Macken, Jennifer O’Neill, Gillian Dully, Elaine O’Connor, and Jane O’Grady.
Renatus Comment:
This deal will create a group with estimated combined revenue of over £50m and over 300 employees with an international network of 10 offices in UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Singapore. 4site’s design and planning expertise in delivering specialist fibre, mobile and wireless services will complement Indigo’s existing supply of multi-vendor telecom support services. CRO filings list Ian Duggan as being the 100% owner of 4site.
Source: 4site Press Release
Deal Details: Innovu, which is backed by MML Growth Capital Partners, has moved to acquire Wexford Insurances for an undisclosed sum.
Wexford Insurances was established in 1995 and has become one of Irelands leading insurance brokerages. Set up by Ken and Carmel Lawler, the company serves the equestrian market, as well as the corporates and SME markets.
Innovu acquired Sheridan Insurances last year and plans to be an active player in the consolidation of the insurance broker markets. This deal brings gross written premiums at Innovu to €40m.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal Details: Belfast-based Willis Insurance and Risk Management (Willis IRM) has acquired Leeds firm Hale Kavanagh Insurance Brokers Ltd for an undisclosed sum.
Hale Kavanagh, which specialises in general insurance broking, has been operating since 2011 and employs 10 members of staff at its office in Leeds.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment:
Willis IRM was established in Northern Ireland in 1978 by Robert Willis. It purchased Kennett Insurance Brokers in Hull in 2017 and the acquisition of Hale Kavanagh expands the Yorkshire presence gross written premium (GWP) to £10m (€11.75m). The total group GWP sits at £45m (€52.88m).
Source: Willis IRM Press Release
Deal Details: Co Westmeath plastics business Mergon Group has secured a multimillion euro investment from Elysian Capital. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Mergon Group is a family-owned business founded in 1981 by the Beirne family. It makes plastic moulding products used by car manufacturers, healthcare companies and other businesses. Customers include BMW, Jaguar Landrover, Abbot, Medtronic, Xerox, Whirlpool and Tesla. Mergon employs 660 people globally, almost half of whom are in Castlepollard. It also has facilities in South Carolina in the United States, and in the Czech Republic.
The investment will enable Mergon to expand further into China.
Advisers: Elysian Capital was advised by Addleshaw Goddard (Manchester); A&L Goodbody (Dublin); Price Waterhouse (top up DD and Tax); Roland Berger (Commercial); ERM (Environmental) and Aon (insurance). The vendors and existing Management were advised by Matheson (legal), Deloitte Corporate Finance Dublin (Advisory and sell-side VDD); CIL (sell-side Commercial DD).
Banking was provided by AIB and Bank of Ireland.
Renatus Comment:
Elysian Capital is a British private equity firm established in 2007 by Ken Terry and Chai Patel. It typically acquires majority stakes in businesses valued at between £20m (€23.54m) and £100m (€117.71m). They join many other UK PE counterparts who have invested in Irish businesses in recent years including but not limited to Volpi, Synova, H2, Elgin, Exponent, Perwyn, Capvest, Bregal Milestone, Star Capital and more.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: Windmark Developments Ltd sold its wholly owned subsidiary, Solar Farmers Ltd, to Energia Group. The value of the deal was not disclosed. The investment is Energia’s first Solar acquisition under the group’s five year €3bn ‘Positive Energy’ renewable energy investment programme which it announced earlier this year.
Solar Farmers Ltd holds the development rights for two proposed large scale ground mounted solar PV projects in County Meath.
Energia Group plans to develop the two projects, producing enough electricity to power 9,000 homes with long-term plans to service 58,000 homes.
Energia, established in 1999, currently supplies over 1.2 Gigawatts of green power to almost 800,000 customers across the island of Ireland from 22 wind farms it owns, as well as from two major gas fired stations in North County Dublin.
The group, which includes Power NI in the North, has a turnover of €2bn, employing over 800.
Advisers: ByrneWallace has acted for Windmark Developments Ltd. The team was led by Gavin Blake (Partner and Head of Energy and Natural Resources) and included Jonathan Lynch (Senior Associate, Corporate) and Kelly Mackey (Solicitor, Corporate).
Renatus Comment:
The renewable sector has been probably the second most active after Financial Services for M&A Activity in 2019.
Source: Byrne Wallace
Deal Details: Irish retail group BWG, is set to acquire a 38pc stake in the upmarket grocery chain Fresh as part of a €10m investment in the business.
BWG is one of Irelands leading food retail and wholesale companies with more than 650 suppliers and approximately 14,000 customers. The company includes brands such as Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis, BWG Food Service, 4 Aces, among others.
Fresh is an upmarket grocery chain with locations already in Grand Canal Dock, IFSC, Camden Street, Smithfield and Stepaside with its next shop set to open in Dublin’s new urban quarter, Dublin Landings, which will open in the second quarter of 2020. Fresh currently employs more than 300 staff and had an FY18 turnover of c. €29m. John Clohisey, a director of BWG, is set to join the board of Fresh Opportunities Limited.
Advisers: Fresh were advised by Brian McGann from Focus Capital.
Source: Irish Independent
Deal Details: Erisbeg has recently announced an investment in Medray for an undisclosed amount.
Medray is one of Ireland’s leading providers of imaging equipment to the healthcare, dental and veterinary sectors. The company was founded in 1979 with a focus in selling X-ray equipment to the Irish healthcare market and now currently employs c. 29 staff to provide many more services.
Erisbeg is an Irish company that looks to acquire established businesses both in Ireland and Internationally and then further develop them. Their focus is on acquiring SMEs who require a succession plan to help realise the value of the business and secure its future.
Advisers: Alan Kelly of Focus Capital advised Medray on this Transaction. Adrian Wall at ReganWall represented Medray/its founder and William Fry acted for Erisbeg.
Source: LinkedIn
The proposed acquisition by Parma Investments Limited of 25% shareholding of Marpole Limited from Mr Ken Fennell of Deloitte in his capacity as receiver, has been notified to the CCPC.
Parma Investments Limited, which is owned by Larry Goodman and Catherine Goodman, is the registered shareholders of 75% of the issued share capital of Galway Clinic Doughiska Limited. Larry Goodman is also primed to take a majority stake in the Blackrock Clinic, following this latest acquisition.
Marpole Limited is the parent company of Galway Clinic Doughiska Limited which is a private healthcare provider in Doughiska, Galway. It also operates an outreach clinic in Raheen, Limerick.
The Galway Clinic was co-founded by Jimmy Sheehan and businessman Brendan McDonald and in 2018 had turnover of c. €96.5m and also made a pre-tax profit of c. €9.5m.
Source: CCPC
Kerry Group has lost out in its bid to acquire the nutrition and biosciences business of the US chemicals group DuPont. The deal, which would have transformed the Irish company and potentially triggered a sell-off of some of its Irish food businesses, was valued at $26.2b (€23.5m).
Kerry lost the merger to a rival US-based bidder International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF).
Kerry Group was advised by Goldman Sachs on the deal; Greenhill and Morgan Stanley are IFF’s financial advisers and Evercore are DuPont’s financial advisers.
Source: Irish 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.
AIB appoints new Chief People Officer
Current People & IT Director at Tesco Ireland, Geraldine Casey, has been appointed as AIB’s next Chief People Officer. Ms Casey, who joined Tesco Ireland almost 19 years ago on a graduate programme, held a number of senior positions in the retailing group before joining its leadership team in 2014 when she became people and IT director. She also assumed responsibility for the business’s corporate affairs team earlier this year. Ms Casey is a graduate of UCC with a degree in Commerce.
Dalata appoints new Corporate Development Director
Hotel operator Dalata Hotel Group has appointed a new corporate development director, with Shane Casserly taking up the role. Mr Casserly’s appointment will be effective from January 1st. A graduate of University College Cork, Mr Casserly joined Dalata in March 2014 as head of strategy and development. A chartered accountant, he previously worked as head of development at Jurys Doyle Hotel Group and held senior positions with Ion Equity, Microsoft Europe and Musgrave Group.
ByrneWallace appoints new Life Sciences Partner
ByrneWallace has announced the appointment of Catherine Dowling as a Partner in Life Sciences and Corporate. Ms Dowling trained as a Solicitor at ByrneWallace and moved rapidly through the ranks of the firm over the past 10 years from Solicitor to Associate, Senior Associate and now Partner. She is a Commerce graduate of UCD.
Eversheds Sutherland appoints new Aviation Consultant
Eversheds Sutherland has appointed Aaron McGarry as a consultant in the firm’s international aviation team based in Dublin. Mr McGarry has over 15 years’ experience in aviation financing at Irish and international law firms. He has acted for banks, lessors and investors on a broad range of domestic and international asset financing transactions, involving commercial fixed-wing aircraft and rotary aircraft, in relation to loan facilities, revolving credit facilities and pre-delivery payment facilities, amongst others. He is a former Partner at Maples & Calder and at Walkers. He is a history graduate of Trinity College Dublin.
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.
| Belmont Care Limited, which trades as Belmont House, is a family run, private nursing home based in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. In the company’s most recent financial year, revenues increased by 3.0% to c. €11.5m although EBITDA jumped by 116.7% to c. €3.9m due to a significant decrease in admin expenses during the year as well as a c. €1.1m profit on disposal of fixed assets in FY17. The company employed an average of 154 staff during the year at a cost of c. €5.9m. There was a net cash increase of c. €720k after the company made a c. €1.9m loan repayment as well as c. €260k payment to acquire fixed assets during the year. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. €2.2m against a debt balance of c. €18.6m. Net assets were up 36.0% to c. €9.6m. The company is owned by Albert (50%) and Mary (50%) Connaughton. |
| Dublin-based P.J. Brennan and Company Limited, which trades as Brennan and Company, is a major Irish supplier of highly specialised technological equipment to the Scientific, Medical and Industrial markets. In FY18, turnover remained fairly static at c. €17.8m with a 2.2% increase in EBITDA to c. €1.4m. The company employed an average of 60 employees during the year at a cost of c. €4.5m. There was a net cash decrease of c. €810k in FY18 after significant working capital movements as well as a c. €158k loan repayment leaving cash on the balance sheet at c. €1.5m against a debt balance of c. €747k. Net assets were up slightly from the previous year to c. €8.0m. The company is majority owned by Mr Gregory Myles Brennan (Jnr) (51%). |
Who: Aerospace and industrial engineering company Team Accessories Limited, based near Dublin Airport, has secured funding.
What: €5m invested by BGF Ireland.
Why: The funds will be used to support future growth.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Irish software research centre Lero is to receive investment.
What: €6m investment comes from Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei. The investment is the first tranche of a €70 million research and development (R&D) spend recently announced by Huawei for the Republic of Ireland.
Why: The funds will be used for a new research programme which is aimed at improving the reliability of software applications. Researchers from University of Limerick, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway and Dublin City University will all participate in the new programme.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Manna Aero, the drone delivery firm set up by CarTrawler CTO Bobby Healy, has closed a seed funding round.
What: $5.2m (€4.7m) funding round was led by Dynamo Ventures, which is focused on supply chain and logistics firms.
Why: The funding will be used for launching its first food-delivery drone services in Ireland next March with the fast food delivery service Flipdish. Manna will start with an area servicing 30,000 people.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: Versono Medical Limited is an advanced early stage Medtech company which has created a disruptive active guidewire product which will allow physicians to conduct minimally invasive endovascular procedures on critical limb ischemia patients, who often might otherwise have full or partial amputations.
What: Versono Medical is seeking to raise EIIS funds of c.€3.6m.
Why: The Company is offering Ordinary Shares in exchange for EIIS investments, which allows investors to fully participate in upside potential.
Source: DHKN
€14.2bn
The value of goods Ireland exported in October, Ireland’s highest total ever recorded in a single month. This represented a year-on-year rise of 16%. More than a third of exports came from the medical and pharmaceutical sector. @IndoBusiness
42%
1.3%
The year-on-year drop in the unemployment rate in Northern Ireland reducing to a record low of 2.3%, according to a report by NI Statistics and Research Agency.@BelTel
2.3%
The spending growth in the Irish supermarkets in the 12 weeks to December 1st, amounting to €2.6b, according to Kantar research. @irishexaminer
33%
The decrease in the household debt in ROI since boom-time peak of €203b Q3 2008, reducing to €135.3b or €27,489 per person in Q2 2019, according to @CentralBank @IndoBusiness
3
The number of US presidents that have been impeached. @rtenews
8.2%
The year-on-year increase in the average rents paid nationwide for Q3 2019, rising to €1,243 per month, according to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). @IrishTimesBiz
2.6%
The average forecast pay increase for the Irish workers for 2020, the highest in any of the EU member state, according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson.
@RTEbusiness
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.
Receive this Newsletter Direct to your Inbox
To receive Renatus’ Weekly M&A Newsletter directly to your inbox, click the button below and subscribe to the newsletter.
