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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: Welltel, an end-to-end communications provider, has acquired managed IT and Security Services company Invistech. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Welltel is a growing communications company, currently employing 100 people and providing managed services to over 3,000 business customers in Ireland and internationally. Winner of 6 x Deloitte Fast 50 awards the company has experienced fast growth since 2015.
Invistech, an independent information and communications technology company founded in 2008, has offices in Cork, Limerick and Dublin.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: This latest acquisition brings another 400 customers to the Welltel platform. The company has continued to grow over the past number of years through acquisitions as part of its long-term growth strategy led by founder and managing director Ross Murray. Previous acquisitions include Eyrco, a contact centre services provider, in May 2018 which brought an additional 300 customers to its platform as well as the acquisition of ATS Group in June 2017, a provider of phone systems and telecoms services.
Source: Welltel Press Release
Deal Details: ViClarity, a leading Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) technology provider has formed strategic alliance with PolicyWorks LLC, a US consultancy and services firm who specialize in compliance.
ViClarity, founded in 2008, is widely regarded as one of the world’s most innovative Regtech companies having recently been named “Best Operational Risk Solution” by Insurance ERM.
Headquartered in Kerry, it has offices in Boston Massachusetts and Des Moines Iowa. Its GRC management platform is a proven technology solution currently being utilized by more than 300 organizations in the financial services and healthcare sectors.
PolicyWorks is a national leader in compliance solutions serving more than 1200 organizations across the United States.
Advisers:
Deloitte’s Munster based Financial Advisory Partner Ronan Murray and his team provided lead M&A advisory services to the Vendors.
Adrian Wall and Kieran Regan of Regan Wall acted as legal advisors to the vendor and were supported by Nixon Peadbody Boston.
William Fry handled the Irish legal aspects for Policy Works LLC and Bridgepoint Investment Banking (financial advisers)
Renatus Comment:
The agreement will see ViClarity, led by CEO Ogie Sheehy, continue to grow and expand its European headquarters in Tralee while gaining a team of resources in the US. This should bolster its ability to provide best-in-class client service capabilities as well as providing the “boots on the ground” to further drive its expansion in the US. This is a high-growth market with industry reports suggesting that the RegTech market is expected to grow by over 50% per annum out to 2025 when the market is expected to be worth over $55bn.
Source: ViClarity Press Release
Deal Details: Airbus has acquired a virtual reality pilot training solution that is the brainchild of Irish man Shane Carroll and which has been largely developed in Dublin.
Mr Carroll established his own company called VRnam to develop the virtual reality solution in 2016 while based in Ho Chi Minh city. The start-up later won a place on Airbus’ Toulouse-based accelerator and was subsequently acquired by Airbus for an undisclosed sum.
Mr Carroll said it was easy to convince his new employer of the value in relocating the team in Dublin to avail of the best talent locally. The virtual reality flight trainer is to be used in Airbus training centres from the second half of 2020. It will subsequently be available as a customisable solution for individual airlines after this.
Advisers: VRnam was advised by David Chapman, of Chapman Cole (corporate finance), Alan O’Driscoll, Flynn O’Driscoll (legals) and Tim O’Rahilly, PWC (tax). Airbus was advised by Alerion, France (legals).
Renatus Comment: Virtual reality technology has really progressed in the last decade to the point now where it has numerous applications and has been adopted in multiple industry verticals including gaming, entertainment and education. IT giants including Facebook, Google and Apple each have a presence in the industry and are pouring R&D resources into hardware and software development in the space.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: Greencoat Capital funds, Greencoat Renewables and Greencoat UK, have acquired windfarms in Co. Clare and Co. Tyrone.
Geencoat Renewables has acquired 14.1MW Letteragh Wind Farm in Co. Clare for €35.4m. The facility consists of six Enercon E92 turbines. This brings its portfolio of operational wind assets to 476MW.
In a separate deal, Greencoat UK acquires Co. Tyrone wind farm from SSE Renewables for £51m (€61m).
Slieve Divena II, near Ballygawley, consists of eight turbines capable of generating 18.8MW of energy. SSE says that is enough to power 16,300 homes, offsetting 15,200 tonnes of carbon each year.
The wind farm is next to the 30MW Slieve Divena development, which Greencoat acquired in 2017.
As part of the deal SSE Renewables will manage the wind farm on behalf of Greencoat, while its Irish retail arm SSE Airtricity will take the energy it produces.
The deal is expected to conclude by the end of next month.
Advisers: Co. Clare wind farm deal was advised by Grant Thornton team led by Peter McArdle while Gavin Hinchy and Brian Moran led the legal side for BHK Solicitors. John Neeson led the McCann’s team for the purchasers and Greencoat’s in house team looked after the financials and advisory work on their side.
Renatus Comment: It’s no surprise that Greencoat continue with its wind farm acquisition strategy in Ireland with some of the storms we have seen recently, not least storm Ciara when wind farms around Ireland were generating c. 4,166MW of power, breaking all records set in Ireland in the past. Even Ireland’s old reliable coal station at Moenypoint was not needed to produce power for the past several weeks.
With the new Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) (which will provide support to renewable energy projects in Ireland), the REFIT scheme (which guarantees a minimum price for each unit of electricity exported to the grid over a 15 year period and therefore making returns more predictable) and Ireland’s target to match its ambition to have 70% of renewable energy by 2030, I suspect we can expect to see a lot more action in this space over the coming years with Greencoat heavily involved.
Source: RTE
Deal Details: Ulster Carpets has announced the acquisition of Axminster Carpets’ underlay business Axfelt for an undisclosed sum.
Ulster Carpets, established in 1938 in Portadown, employs 700 people in Portadown, London, Paris, Dubai and across the USA. The group also incorporates technical textile machinery manufacturer Griffith Textile Machines, wool processing and dyeing company Ulster Yarns, specialist commercial carpet manufacturer Danfloor, and luxury interiors brands Roger Oates and Mourne Weavers.
Axminster Carpets, founded in 1755, boasts Buckingham Palace and the US Congress among its many commissions. It entered administration for the second time since 2013 resulting in the sale of Axfelt.
Axfelt is made from 100% recycled materials, including wool rich carpet and rubber tyres
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Originally founded by George Walter Wilson in 1938, Ulster Carpets is now a third-generation family business with his grandson, John Wilson, now acting as the chairman of the business along with many of the Wilson family holding shares in the business. According to its most recent filings, Ulster Carpets generates c. £10.9m in EBITDA off c. £74.4m in turnover. Axminister Carpets is majority owned by Jo-Harry Dawson and Andrew Gerrard Dawson
Source: Ulster Carpets Press Release
Deal Details: NorDan, a Norwegian window and doormaker, has acquired its Irish subsidiary, NorDan Vindeuer, from Carroll Joinery, a Dublin doormaker, for an undisclosed sum. Nordan Vindeuer is led by managing director Sean Luskin and employs 30 staff.
Founded in 1926, NorDan manufactures a range of windows and doors and has had a presence in Ireland for nearly 20 years through its subsidiary.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Latest filings for Nordan Vindeuer show the company made a net profit of c. €550k for the period ending December 2018. Prior to the transaction NorDan Vindeuer was owned equally by Niall, Brian and Colm O’Toole – the three also equally own Carroll Joinery.
Source: Sunday Times
Deal Details: NorDan, a Norwegian window and doormaker, has acquired its Irish subsidiary, NorDan Vindeuer, from Carroll Joinery, a Dublin doormaker, for an undisclosed sum. Nordan Vindeuer is led by managing director Sean Luskin and employs 30 staff.
Founded in 1926, NorDan manufactures a range of windows and doors and has had a presence in Ireland for nearly 20 years through its subsidiary.
Deal Details: Allglass windscreens and Autoglass have merged to become Ireland’s market-leading vehicle glass and replacement company.
The combined companies will now have over 100 technicians, 25 depots, a central distribution centre and serve over 80,000 customers a year.
Advisers: Allglass was advised by Gerard O’Reilly, Corporate Finance Partner at Crowe and Griana O’Kelly, Partner, Lavelle Solicitors.
Renatus Comment: This merger will combine an Irish-owned entity with an internationally owned one. Autoglass is owned by Belron Group, a world leading vehicle glass repair and replacement group with over 30,000 employees operating in over 30 different countries.
Source: Crowe press release
Deal Details: Glantus, a Dublin-based developer of software that automates the accounts payable process, has acquired JPD Financial for an undisclosed sum.
JPD financial is a US company specialising in vendor credit recovery services and has offices in California and Britain. Glantus is led by founder and CEO Maurice Healy, and has a number of bluechip customers including Barclays, PaddyPower Betfair, Deloitte and AIG.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Source: Sunday Business Post
Deal Details: Dublin-based outdoor adventure firm Orangeworks has acquired Thrive for an undisclosed sum.
Thrive is an Irish-owned team development firm founded and led by managing director Damian Killen. Orangeworks is led by managing director David Bassett and the company managed 500 team building events last year for clients including Google, PwC and Allergan.
Advisers: None mentioned
Source: Sunday Business Post
Flogas Energy is reported to be lining up a €20m bid to take control of Budget Energy, an all-island power retailer. Flogas is backed by DCC and last November it acquired 10,000 customers from Just Energy, another rival in Ireland. Budget Energy was founded by Dragons Den investor Eleanor McEvoy and her former husband George. The company operates in the gas and electricity markets in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Eleanor is reported to have exited Budget Energy last year.
Source: Sunday Times
Arkphire formally closes Trilogy acquisitionArkphire has confirmed the legal and regulatory completion of its acquisition of Trilogy Technologies. Source: Arkphire Press Release |
Flutter gets Australian clearance for Stars Group mergerPaddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment has received regulatory approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for its proposed merger with The Stars Group Inc. Following this ACCC clearance, Flutter will await the formal approval of its transaction by Australia’s ‘Foreign Investment Review Board’, who will decide whether to allow a merged Flutter-Stars enterprise to operate within Australian markets. Deal stakeholders will now turn their attention to the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) critical assessment of the Flutter-Stars merger, which began this February. 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 with details of key recent executive and board level appointments.
Ardmac appoints new CFO
Adrmac has appointed Ian Madden as chief financial officer. The firm which employs more than 300 people in Ireland and Europe, provides construction services to the commercial fit-out, life sciences and data centre sectors. Previously the firm’s financial director, he joined Ardmac in 2016. Mr Madden previously worked at Capnua Corporate Finance. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of Ireland.
Eversheds Sutherlands appoints new aviation consultant
Aaron McGarry has been appointed as a consultant in the law firm Eversheds Sutherland’s international aviation team based in Dublin. Mr McGarry has over 15 years’ experience 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, on loan facilities, revolving credit facilities and pre-delivery payment facilities. He has also lectured on the Law Society of Ireland’s diploma courses on derivatives for a number of years.
Lisney appoints new Managing Director
David Byrne has been named as managing director of property advisory company Lisney. He has 20 years’ experience in domestic and international property. He joined Lisney in 2001 and has specialised in the sale and acquisition of residential property in Dublin. He has overseen strategic growth as a director in the firm’s residential department since 2014. He has a BA in psychology from UCD and a BSc in Property Studies from DIT. Mr Byrne is a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He takes over from Duncan Lyster who is joining long-time client Irish Life Investment Managers.
DAA appoints three new board members
The Dublin Airport Authority has appointed three new non-executive directors to the board of the company. Etihad Airways’ senior strategic advisor to its CEO, Ray Gammell has joined as a non-executive director. Along with Mr Gammell, senior marketeer Karen Norton and NTR’s CFO Marie Joyce have also been appointed as non-executive directors.
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.
Dublin-based Collen Construction Limited is a family owned international construction company that has a strong reputation for building quality and excellence. The business covers a wide range of market sectors, including: Commercial; Residential; Education; Healthcare; Conservation; Industrial, Data Centres; Design and Build. In its most recent financial year, the company saw a 29.6% increase in revenue up to a massive c. €270.7m while EBITDA increased by 15.8% to c. €5.7m. The company employed an average of 268 employees in FY19 at a cost of c. €17.6m. There was a net cash decrease during the year of c. €1.6m after significant working capital movements cut c. €4.0m of cash, the company also had a Capex spend of c. €1.6m and paid a c. €1.2m dividend out during the year leaving the closing cash balance at c. €15.7m. The company had no debt on the balance sheet at year end and net assets were up to c. €13.9m from c. €11.1m the previous year. The company is 100% owned by the Collen family.
Based on the outskirts of Portlaois, Laois Sawmills Limited is a sawmill company processing 100,000 tonnes of log material annually in its state-of-the-art facility. The business had a very successful year in FY19 which experienced an increase in revenue by 33.5% to c. €20.8m while EBITDA increased by an impressive 62.8% to c. €2.7m. The jump in EBITDA was due to the well managed cost of goods sold. The company employed an average of 50 people in FY19 at a cost of c. €2.2m. There was a net cash increase of c. €1.0m during the year after to company spent c. €4.4m on the purchase of tangible assets (c. €3.7m on Plant and Machinery, c. €675k on Freehold Property) and took out a new bank loan of c. €3.3m while also making a c. €550k debt repayment. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. 2.8m against a debt balance of c. €3.6m. Net assets increased by 14.5% to c. €15.3m in FY19. The company is owned by Carmel McNamara (43%), James McNamara (20%), Niall McNamara (15%), Eadaoin McNamara (15%) and Rory Roberts (7%).
Rosebys Limited, which trades as Masterlink, is an Irish provider of logistics, warehousing and transport services with operating facilities nationwide. Accounts for the period ending March 2019 show growth in both Revenue and EBITDA of c. 11% and 4%, respectively. Employee numbers jumped by c. 29% to 392 with staff costs also increasing by c. 30% to €13.2m during the period. There was a CapEx spend of c. €384k during the year, the majority of which related to plant and machinery. Roughly 90% (€2.6m) of the €2.9m in operating free cashflow generated by the business was spent on debt-related repayments. An additional €470k of new short term debt was also drawn down during the period. Masterlink had a closing cash balance of c. €386k versus c. €15.8m in debt, finance lease and hire purchase obligations. John O’Regan, Thomas O’Regan and John Brosnan each own c. 21% of the company while Noel O’Regan, William Forde and John Darby each own 12.5% of the company.
Who: Cirdan, a Northern Irish company which develops technology to support and speed up diagnosis for patients has secured funding.
What: £1.5m (€1.8m) comes from the UK’s Growth Finance Fund.
Why: The funding will support the continued R&D spend and working capital needs.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Flyefit is reportedly seeking to raise funds.
What: The low-cost gym chain is planning to raise tens of millions of euro. Majority owned by businessmen Brendan O’Hagan and Sé Kennedy, Flyefit has retained boutique corporate finance firm Capnua, which also owns a stake in the business, to secure investment, which may come in the form of equity and debt.
Why: The capital will be used to double the size of the business to 35 gyms over the next five years.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Coleraine-based manufacturing firm Maine Surface Finishing has secured funding. Maine Surface Finishing is a provider of powder coating and wet paint spraying services and is based in Northern Ireland.
What: £1.5m (€1.8m) comes from Invest NI to bring the total investment to £9.5m (€11.37).
Why: The funding will help create 155 new jobs and to purchase new equipment.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: 3EN Cloud, a Co Down IT company has received funding.
What: The company received £164,000 (€196,300) from Invest NI as part of £1.2m (€1.44m) total investment.
Why: The support of Invest NI had helped it to achieve sales in Boston and win contracts with Mile High Labs and wearable tech giant Fitbit.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: Elkstone, a wealth management group headed by Alan Merriman.
What: Elkstone is launching a €50m venture capital fund. It’s reported that Elkstone has secured an anchor investor as well as commitments from high-net-worth individuals.
Why: The funds raised will be used to invest in early-stage Irish technology companies.
Source: Sunday Times
Who: SilverCloud Health, a Dublin-based company that operates as a digital mental and behavioural health platform. The company was founded in 2012 and is led by chief executive Ken Cahill.
What: SilverCloud is reported to be finalising a funding round of up to c. €18.4m. Backers in the funding round include Memorial Care Innovation Fund in California, OSF Ventures in Illinois and LVRHealth in Boston.
Source: Sunday Times
Who: Output Sports, a sports science start-up set up in 2018 that has created a motion sensor to monitor athletic performance. Output is a UCD spin-out and was founded by Martin O’Reilly, Darragh Whelan, Julian Eberle and Brian Caulfield.
What: The company has raised c. €1.3m in funding. Backers include Enterprise Ireland, Elkstone, The University Bridge Fund, which is managed by Atlantic Bridge, and Leinster rugby players Dan Leavy and Adam Byrne.
Source: Sunday Independent
There has been surprisingly little written about the effect that Coronavirus is having on the global supply chain given that China is the starting point of many supply chains. Containment efforts by China have resulted in the shutdown of a large number of its factories which should result in an impact by the Western companies that use them.
It might become more written about in the coming weeks as the first shipments since the lockdown would not have been due yet and the coming weeks should illuminate the effects. One of Apple’s main suppliers, Foxconn Technology, has given drastic warnings on its 2020 numbers. This has created a supply-side constraint for Apple and will affect its ability to achieve its sales target this year.
If they are affected, what might the damage be to smaller Irish SMEs? Last week, I spoke to one Irish entrepreneur whose products are made in China. He thinks that the supply chain implications of the Coronavirus could wipe out his entire profit for the year.
Let’s hope that the infections stop spreading and that this creates a temporary blip rather than a wipe out on supply chains locally.
1.3%
The year-on-year increase in the Irish consumer price index for January 2020 with the most notable changes in Education, up by 4.1% and Communications, down by 10.6%, according to @CSOIreland
4.3%
The year-on-year decrease in the Irish manufacturing prices for January 2020, according to @CSOIreland
3.5%
The year-on-year increase in the number of people in employment for December 2019, amounting to 2,361,200 people, up 79,900 on the previous year, according to the Labour Force Survey. @RTEbusiness
€111bn
The forecast consumer spending in Ireland for 2020 with 70,000 more people expected to join the workforce and wages predicted to grow by 4%, according to the latest Consumer Market Monitor from the Marketing Institute. @RTEbusiness
3%
The expected growth in the Irish GDP for 2020, according to EY’s latest Economic Eye report. @RTEbusiness
0.8%
The projected growth for Northern Irish GDP for 2020, according to EY’s latest Economic Eye report. @BelTel
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