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: IT solutions company PlanNet21 has acquired rival eCom for an undisclosed sum.
Dublin headquartered PlanNet 21 Group is a technology solutions provider, holding partnerships with many worlds’ leading technology vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, IBM and others. The business was founded in 1998, won the Deloitte Best Management Company award in 2018 and its Co-founder Denise Tormey is a 2015 EY Entrepreneur of the year finalist.
PlanNet21 recorded turnover of €32m for the 12 months ending September 30th, with pretax profits of €5.5m.
With the acquisition, the group will employ over 140 full time staff in regional offices in Cork, Galway, Belfast and Edinburgh.
Established in 2000 by Sean Martin and Brendan O’Brien, eCom Solutions was founded to provide best-in-class technical solutions within the IT network and cyber security market.
Advisers:
EY’s Technology Corporate Finance Team (Robert Hussey and Michael Murphy) advised PlanNet 21. Eugene F Collins’ Nicola McGrath and Doreen Mescal provided legals and Marcus Purcell, Paraic Waters and Carthach McCarthy of EY’s Strategy and Transactions Team acted as DD advisers to PlanNet 21.
eCom was advised by Michael Neary and Paul Murray of Grant Thornton Corporate Finance and Beauchamps’ Shaun O’Shea provided legal advice.
Renatus Comment: The IT services sector has experienced hyper-growth in recent years. As most data storage is shifting to the cloud there is now an even more pressing need for robust cyber security systems in place to keep our data safe. PlanNet21 have been on an acquisition charge recently, including purchasing the business assets of Scottish-based Hutchinson Networks last year and Irish company Agile Networks in 2017. This acquisition is supported by PlanNet21’s wider strategic target to reach revenues of €100m over the coming years.
Source: PlanNet21 Press Release
Deal Details: Datasite has entered into an agreement to be acquired by funds managed by CapVest Partners LLP.
Financial details of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Datasite is a leading SaaS provider for the mergers & acquisitions (M&A) industry, with more than 750 employees in 25 locations across 13 countries.
Advisers: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor to Datasite, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld served as legal advisor to the Company.
CapVest was advised by William Blair (financial advisor), Kirkland & Ellis LLP (legal), KPMG LLP (financial & due diligence), James Tetherton of GRAPH Strategy (commercial due diligence) and West Monroe Partners (technical due diligence).
Renatus Comment: CapVest, founded and led by Cavan-man Seamus Fitzpatrick, is a leading private equity firm. There are many hugely successful global private equity firms founded or led by Irish people including David Menton of Synova, Ross Finegan of Lonsdale, Ronan Cunningham of Spectrum, Richard Lenane of Exponent, Gareth Healy of Tenzing, Barry Maloney founder of Balderton Capital and Taggia, and many more.
Source: Datasite Press Release
Deal Details: Caldic B.V. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire two leading value-add distributors Brand-Nu Laboratories Inc. (“Brand-Nu”) and BNL Sciences Ltd. (“BNL”). The deal consideration was not disclosed.
Netherlands-headquartered Caldic is a full-service innovative solution provider for the global Food, Health & Personal Care and Industrial markets.
BNL Sciences, based in Naas, Ireland, is one of the leading distributors of high purity chemicals to the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
American company Brand-Nu focuses on the distribution of high purity specialty chemicals, excipients and biological raw materials.
The transaction is expected to close prior to the end of the year and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Advisers: BDO Capital Advisors LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Brand-Nu and BNL and Reid & Riege P.C. and LK Shields Solicitors LLP as legal advisors to the sellers.
Hogan Lovells and Arthur Cox are serving as legal advisors to Caldic.
Renatus Comment: Prior to the transaction BNL Sciences Limited was owned equally by Jim McKeown and John Gorman.
Account filings for the period ending December 2019 show that BNL generated turnover of €28.3m and an EBITDA of roughly €3.9m. Roughly 95% of the turnover was generated in the Republic of Ireland (with the balance in the UK) and BNL employed an average of 17 staff during the period.
Source: Caldic Press Release
Deal Details: Greencoat Renewables, an Irish renewable infrastructure firm, has acquired the An Cnoc Wind Farm in Co. Tipperary for an undisclosed sum.
An Cnon Wind Farm consists of 5 Enercon E70 turbines. Its revenues are contracted under the Refit 2 scheme, providing a long-term guaranteed minimum floor price for the electricity generated until 2032. Enercon will continue to manage the operations and maintenance contract.
Greencoat also announced a new €200m five-year term loan with a syndicate of three banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Natwest.
The term loan will be used to pay down some of the existing revolving credit facility, leaving it drawn at about €115m.
Advisers: KPMG’s James Delahunt, Michael Hayes and Russell Smyth advised the Vendors.
Renatus Comment: In a world of negative yield, Paul O’Donnell’s Greencoat is achieving exactly as it set out to getting definite yield for investors from a portfolio of renewable energy assets.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: Waterlogic has acquired Tipperary Water from C&C Group for a reported initial consideration of €7.4m. Additional consideration may be payable if revenue targets are met.
Tipperary Water is a long-established player in the Irish market for supplying water coolers with over 12,000 machines in the field.
Waterlogic, owned by a number of funds controlled by European private equity firm Catsik Capital, is a global workplace hydrations solution company with operations in a number of different geographies, including Ireland.
Tipperary Waters’ business will merge with the existing Waterlogic business here following the completion of the transaction.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: The majority of the cash generated from Tipperary Water is from the cooler space and it will probably have a lot lower volume for the foreseeable future and the big question will be if it will return to similar volumes in 2022 and beyond. If you believe Pat McCann from last week’s Real Deal he believes it will.
Source: The Sunday Times
Spanish group Cellnex Telecom, Europe’s leading operator of wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures, acquired Cignal in September 2019 in a €210m deal.
In its first year in Irish market, Cellnex has invested over €10m by building over 100 telecom sites in Ireland, of which 80% are enabled with fibre infrastructure.
Cellnex has also agreed a partnership with Coillte that will see it invest €5m in rolling out fibre connections to the 300 Cellnex sites located on Coillte property.
When Cellnex entered the Irish market, it committed to investing €60m to build up to 600 new sites by 2026 in areas poorly served by mobile and wireless broadband services in Ireland.
Source: Independent
While always interesting, the Deloitte Fast 50 will be even more interesting when announced for 2020 winners as the businesses who have been beneficiaries of covid are sure to feature given that growth is the metric required to get into the hallowed halls.
Entries close by end November. For further details click here
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.
Breanagh Catering Limited is the company behind Ireland’s most celebrated nightclub Copper Face Jacks.
In its latest fiscal year, the nightclub saw revenue decrease by 9.5% to c. €13.2m while EBITDA also decreased by 3% to c. €4.4m. Of that revenue figure, c. 88% came from Bar & Night club sales with the remaining c.12% coming from accomdation sales.
The company had a net cash decrease of c.€43.8m (68.8%) in FY19 after €47.0m of dividends were paid out to shareholders. There was €19.9m of cash left in the business at the end of the year.
The company employed an average of 183 people in FY19, at a total cost of c.€4.3m. The Company is owned by Cathal and Paula Jackson.
Founded in 1985, Writech Industrial Services Limited provides fire protection design, manufacture, installation, commissioning and servicing services.
In its latest fiscal year, the company saw revenue increase by 10.8% to c. €16.8m while EBITDA decreased by 25.6% to c. €3.3m. The fall in EBITDA was mainly due to a spike in cost of sales which drove gross margins down from 38.2% to 29.3%.
The company had a net cash decrease of c.€1.9m in FY19 leaving an ending cash balance of c.€2.7m. The most significant drain on cash was c.€3.7m from the the movement of funding from group subsidiaries.
The company employed an average of 54 people in FY19 at a total cost of c.€2.8m. The business is owned by Alan and Ted Wright
Based in Dublin, Dixon Transport is a leader in the Irish transport industry, specialising in temperature control logistics for the Food, Pharma and Retail sector.
In its latest fiscal year, the company saw revenue increase by a 6.5% to c. €34.9m while EBITDA also increased by 10.7% to c.€6.7m. Gross margins remained around 42% YoY.
The company had a net cash decrease of c.€20k in FY20 leaving an ending cash balance of c.€1.2m. The most significant movements in cash were the c.€1.3m spent on the fixed assets, c. €4.6m on loan & hire purchase repayments and the c.€1.3m paid out in dividends to shareholders.
The company hired an extra 10 people in FY19 bringing the total headcount to 199 at a total cost of c. €6.9m. Michael Dixon and Eileen Dixon together own 100% of Michael Dixon International Transport Limited.
Who: Irish E-learning company LearnUpon has raised funding. Founded by Brendan Noud and Des Anderson in 2012, LearnUpon has developed a cloud-based learning management system used by over 1,000 companies.
What: €47.4m round was led by Boston-headquartered Summit Partners. Pegasus Corporate Finance acted as financial advisors for LearnUpon and Colm Rafferty ,Deirdre McCarthy and Sarah Cleary of Maples provided legal advice.
Why: LearnUpon said the funding would be used to increase headcount, with 100 engineers being taken on over the next 18 months as it looks to expand into more markets.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Neuromod, an Irish tinnitus therapy group, has raised funds.
What: The €10.5 fundraising, which was led by Irish life sciences venture capital group Fountain Healthcare Partners, was oversubscribed. Moffett Investment Holdings and Medical Device Resources joined Fountain, which is the majority investor in the business. Both are existing investors in the business. ByrneWallace team including partner Catherine Dowling, senior associate Triona Ryan and solicitors Bianca McLaughlin and Genevieve Gallagher advised Neuromod on this fundraise.
Why: The money raised will be used to drive the commercialisation of the company’s Lenire tinnitus device, increasing manufacturing capacity. The company also intends to recruit 40 new employees over the next 12 months.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Galway company ONK Therapeutics secures funding. ONK is developing enhanced natural killer cells in the immune system to target cancers.
What: $8m (c. €6.8m) funding is backed by serial life sciences entrepreneur Seamus Mulligan alongside American biotech Acorn Bioventures and other shareholders. This is Mulligans second investment in the company this year. ONK has raised $14.6m over the past 6 months.
Why: The latest funding will allow the company expand its team and its preclinical R&D and manufacturing capabilities.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Wayflyer, an eCommerce revenue-based financing and marketing analytics platform founded by Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierce, has raised funding.
What: $10.2m (c. €7.8m) seed funding round was led by QED Investors. Middlegame Ventures, Speedinvest and Fintech Investment Vehicle FGFE also participated. Wayflyer was advised by BKK on the financial side, William Darmody and Deirdre McCarthy of Maples provided legal advice.
Why: The Investment will be used to accelerate global expansion in the US and UK and to strengthen their presence in fast growing e-commerce market such as Australia and Canada
Source: GlobalNewswire
Who: Irish leukaemia drug start-up Priothera, established specifically to hunt for cure for cancers of the blood, the bone marrow and lymph nodes, raises funds.
What: €30m fundraising was led by Fountain Healthcare Partners. HealthCap, Tekla Capital Management and EarlyBird Venture Capital also participated in the funding round. Catherine Dowling of ByrneWallace provided legal advice to Priothera.
Why: The Funding will be used to accelerate the development of mocravimod, a drug taken orally that activates cell receptors to trigger part of the body’s immune response against acute myeloid leukaemia.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Cork-based energy business Amarenco Solar is issuing bonds.
What: €12m in senior loan notes was placed by Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland Corporate Finance Ltd. Holmes O’Malley Sexton team, led by consultant Stephen Walker and supported by partner Lisa Killeen, acted for Amarenco Solar.
Why: The loan will be used to finance growth in Ireland, Europe, Middle East and Far East.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Dublin-based private equity firm VentureWave Capital is reportedly half way to reaching its target for the Ireland Impact Fund.
What: The targeted €100m fund is so far backed by a number of high-profile investors including Liam Neeson, former property magnate Stephen Vernon, Mary Ann O’Brien, Bob McCann, US technology investors Rob Perdue and Kurt Long.
They join previously named backers such as U2’s Adam Clayton and the Edge, Eugene McQuade, Anne Heraty, and Stanley Quek, who leads a property development company in Singapore.
Why: The fund is seeking investments that will generate a return for society as well as investors. It has also said it intends to back profit-driven companies which also advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Source: Irish 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 with details of key recent executive and board level appointments.
All business owners are wondering about the effect over the coming years of a route out of covid, Brexit and the US election.
Unfortunately we have no simple proxy to predict the first two but we do use the betting odds as proxy for probability of US election winner and it is currently based on Paddy Power odds:
66% Biden (4/9)
33% Trump (15/8)
1% Other 2
We will keep this updated for one more week ahead of the final outcome.
26.8% & 30.1%
The increase in the national average price for unleaded petrol and diesel, respectively, for the 10-year period between 2009-2019 when the petrol increased from €1.12 to €1.42 per litre and diesel went up from €1.03 to €1.34 per litre, according to @CSOIreland
€15.25bn
The value of Irish exports for 2019 representing the highest level of exports on record, according to @CSOIreland
52.6
The Irish consumer sentiment index for October 2020, down from a reading of 60.7 in September – the second largest drop in the past year, according to KBC Bank Ireland. @IrishTimesBiz
€6.2bn
The State budget deficit for Q2 2020, the largest on record as a result of the increased expenditure on pandemic-related supports and a fall off in tax receipts during the lockdown, according to the Government Finance Statistics. @IrishTimesBiz
12.4%
The year-on-year decrease in the factory gate prices for September 2020, according to @CSOIreland
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