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: Mincon, the Irish engineering group, has acquired Finnish Lehti Group Oy for €8m.
Mincon was established by Patrick Purcell in 1977. It specialises in the design, manufacture, sale and servicing of rock drilling tools and associated products. Mincon currently has production sites in Ireland, UK, Sweden, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and now in Finland.
Advisers: Davy Corporate Finance (Anthony Farrell and Daragh O’Reilly) acted for Mincon as Nominated Adviser and Euronext Growth Advisor.
Renatus Comment: This further deepens Mincon’s positioning in the attractive geotechnical market following its acquisition of PPV Oy in 2017, which became a key part of engineering hub, Mincon Nordic, focusing on accessing the geotechnical / construction markets.
Source: Mincon Group
Deal Details: LifeSignals Inc. announced its merger with the connected health portfolio of Renew Health Limited to form LifeSignals Group Inc.
LifeSignals (formerly HMicro Inc.) is a venture capital-backed company headquartered in Silicon Valley. Its is a global leader in the field of wireless biosensor technology through the Life Signal™ Processor silicon platform.
Renew Health Limited, a European division of the global Renew Group, was established in 2014 in Ireland. Based in the IDA business park in Garrycastle in Athlone, Ireland. Its portfolio of products includes, BioGlo™ ophthalmic strips, Diagnostic Green’s Indocyanine Green for Injection USP/VERDYE and IC-Flow™ Imaging System.
The LifeSignals Group will incorporate the LifeSignals Inc. business, and its Bangalore based subsidiary, LifeSignals (India) Private Limited. From Renew, LGI has acquired the UltraLinq cloud-based cardiology PACS platform business and the Zensor™+ cardiac analytics software business.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: These companies are both operating in an interesting market, with both feeding into connected health assets market. Real-time detailed health data facilitates both higher quality care (a more comprehensive data set allows for better treatment consideration) and a reduction in healthcare costs (reduces the need for unnecessary tests). The real-time aspect is particularly interesting as a delay in collection of data from a health-related event can lead to the data being more general in nature as opposed to being specific to the health-related event.
Source: LifeSignals
Deal Details: Cordovan Capital Partners, a Belfast-based private equity firm, has completed an equity investment into Decorum Vending Limited. As part of the transaction, Cordovan have taken a significant minority stake in the business.
Based in Dorset in England, Decorum specialises in providing vending solutions across the UK and is led by Managing Director Declan Swell.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Renatus Comment: This investment brings Cordovan’s total number of investee companies to nine and is their first investment in Great Britain.
Source: Cordovan Capital Press Release
Deal Details: ABP Food Group’s by-product division, Advanced Protein, has acquired John Pointon and Sons, an animal by-product and proteins business. Consideration for the business is undisclosed.
A family-owned business in operation for over 40 years, John Pointon and Sons is the largest single site by-product and pet ingredient supplier in the UK with a capacity of 400,000 metric tonnes. The business is located in Staffordshire, England on an 80-acre site and is led by Managing Director Martin Pointon
Advisers: None mentioned.
Source: John Pointon and Sons Press Release
Deal Details: Fiona McHugh, the former Sunday Times Ireland editor, and her husband, property developer Paul Byrne, have sold their stake in Fallon & Byrne to existing investors. Together, they were reported to have owned 45% of the restaurant and retail group. The pair opened Fallon & Byrne’s flagship store on Exchequer St. in 2006.
Existing investors, which include former Superquinn finance chief Frank Murphy and Brian Fallon, a Kildare restaurateur, are reported to have taken full control of the Group.
Advisers: None mentioned.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: Planet, an international payment processing platform, is reportedly to be sold by the majority stakeholder Eurazeo for c. €1.98bn. According to reports, European buyout firm Eurazeo recently hired Citigroup and Evercore to prepare the sale of the business.
Planet is a group formed in 2018 consisting of Fintrax, Planet Payment, GB TaxFree, and Premier Tax Free. The group employs more than 1,500 staff in 64 markets. It serves more than 400,000 merchants and 100 partner banks, managing in excess of 500m transactions worth more than €23bn in value.
Its partner brands include Giorgio Armani, Coach, Calvin Klein, El Corte Ingles, Gucci and Hugo Boss.
Eurazeo, founded in 2001, is a listed private equity firm with a diversified portfolio of approximately €17bn in assets under management.
Source: Irish Times
Deal Details: It has been speculated in the papers that CRH may be linked to a potential buyout of Boral, an Australian-based construction materials company with a market cap of c. €3.7bn.
CRH already has an established presence in Australia. It’s Australian companies include Cubis Systems, a network access prducts provider Ancon, a construction accessories business and CR Laurence, a supplier into the glass and glazing industry.
Source: Sunday Independent
Deal Details: The family behind Broderick’s, the confectionary business, has had its shareholding reduced to a reported 25% from 100% following two years of trading losses. The business’ investors, which include BDO Development Capital Fund and Enterprise Ireland, now hold the remaining 75% stake.
In 2017, BDO Development Capital Fund led a €6.35m investment into the business, which included Enterprise Ireland. It was written into the company’s targets and covenants that the investors would have rights over the equity in light of business losses. The accounts show losses of €1.8m and €2.3m in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Source: Sunday Business Post
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.
Lisney announces appointment of new Managing Director
Lisney, Ireland’s largest independently-owned property advisory company, has announced the appointment of David Byrne as its new Managing Director. Mr Byrne has 20 years’ experience in the domestic and international property sector. He joined Lisney in 2001 and has specialised in the sale and acquisition of residential property in Dublin. He is taking over the role as Managing Director from Duncan Lyster who is joining Irish Life Investment Managers in a senior role in the property team in April.
New CEO for Design Partners
Design Partners, the Bray based Design and Development consultancy, has appointed Trevor O’Reilly as its new CEO to lead the firm through the next stages of the firm’s development and growth. Mr O’Reilly has substantial experience across Marketing Services, Manufacturing, BPO, and most recently Retail. Mr O’Reilly previously served as CEO at Sirio Retail Operations Ireland and as CEO at Bezier in London. He is a former Managing Director of RR Donnelly.
Bank of Ireland appoints new Head of Food & Drinks sector
Róisín O’Shea has been appointed as Bank of Ireland’s head of food and drink sector, a newly created role. Prior to joining Bank of Ireland, she held a number of senior commercial positions in both indigenous and multinational consumer goods companies including PepsiCo, Valeo Foods, Carbery, Boyne Valley and Robert Roberts Ltd. Her most recent role was in the sports nutrition industry.
Heineken Ireland appoints new Cider Marketing Manager
Paula Conlon has been appointed as marketing manager for cider with Heineken Ireland, responsible for the Orchard Thieves and Appleman’s cider brands, both designed for the Irish market. She spent the past five years as Heineken’s customer marketing controller, involved in campaigns such as the launch of non-alcoholic beer Heineken 0.0. She previously worked for three years at Britvic Ireland as head of commercial operations. A graduate of DCU and the Smurfit School of Business, Ms Conlon has also worked in the consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser.
New M&A Partner appointed at Matheson
Matheson has announced the appointment of David Fitzgibbon as a partner in the firm’s corporate M&A team. Mr Fitzgibbon is an experienced M&A and capital markets lawyer, having advised on many of Ireland’s largest and most notable transactions. He specialises in corporate and securities laws and mergers and acquisitions, advising on public and private transactions as well as equity capital markets transactions and private equity. Mr Fitzgibbon joins from William Fry where he served as Partner.
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.
Cork-based Food-Bridge Limited specialise in the importation, distribution and wholesaling of poultry meat, serving the manufacturing, foodservice, wholesale and retail sectors. In FY19, the company performed well with revenue rising by 33.9% to c. €172.0m and EBITDA increasing by 40.7% to c. €9.0m. The company employed an average of 18 staff throughout the year at a cost of c. €3.4m. Cash increased by c. €7.3m after significant working capital movements, freeing up c. €8.0m cash, as well as a c. €1.4m tax payment and a c. €8.2m share redemption during the year. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. €5.8m with an overdraft balance of c. €2.7m leaving the company with a net cash balance of c. €3.1m. Net assets were down 3.4% during the year to c. €23.3m. The company is owned by Edward Christopher Gleeson (67.2%), David Gleeson (16.4%) and Sarah Gleeson (16.4%).
Killyhevlin Hotel Limited is a four-star hotel based in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. With views overlooking lough Erne, the Killyhevlin hotel offers hotel accommodation, lakeside lodges, an Elemis Spa, an exclusive Health Club and a top-quality restaurant. In its most recent financial year, the company saw incremental growth with turnover increasing by 1.3% to c. £7.6m while EBITDA was up 1.1% to c. £1.1m. The company employed an average of 200 people in FY19 at a cost of c. £3.1. There was a net cash increase of c. £265k after CapEx spend of c. £380k, which largely related to plant and machinery, as well as dividends paid of c. £360k. Cash on the balance sheet stood at c. £933k against a debt balance of c. £24k. Net assets were up to c. £9.0m from c. £8.6m the previous year. The company is owned by Jacqueline Wright (50%) and Heather Leigh Watson (50%).
Mulleady’s Limited is a Longford-headquartered waste service provider to domestic, commercial and industrial customers. Tunrover and EBITDA declined during FY18 by c. 4% and c. 13% to €8.1m and €1.3m, respectively. Mulleadys employs 74 staff at an annual cost of c. €2.1m across its waste and recyclables materials recovery facility in Longford and its EPA-licenced waste facility in Westmeath. The biggest drains on cash generated during the year were (1) c. €530k of capital expenditures, (2) a dividend payout of c. €460k and (3) c. €450k in debt and interest payments. At the period end, the company had a cash balance of c. €480k against a debt balance of c. €983k. The business is owned by Elaine, Niall and Brendan Mulleady as well as Donna Geoghegan.
Who: Irish smart energy company GridBeyond (formerly known as Endeco Technologies), founded in 2007 by Michael Phelan, has closed Series B financing round.
What: A €10.5m investment round was led by Energias De Portugal (EDP) with existing backers ESB and Dublin-headquartered Act Venture Capital also participating along with Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures
A ByneWallace team led by Neil Keenan with the assistance of Daniel Holohan, senior associate in corporate and Emmet Connolly and Conor Moran, solicitors in corporate provided legal support.
Why: The financing will be used towards scaling the business further and expanding into new markets.
The company also intends to double its workforce over the next three years, invest further in research and development, and expand its current offerings.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Social Innovation Fund Ireland (SIFI) has launched a new fund.
What: €1.6m has been provided by IPB Insurance and the Department of Rural and Community Development, through the Dormant Accounts Fund.
Why: The fund is to support social enterprises around the country. SIFI expects to support 16 social entrepreneurs with the money, offering grants of €10,000 to €50,000 to each organisation.
Source: RTE
Who: Irish technology company Cubic Telecom, led by Barry Napier, has raised funding.
What: Over €11m comes from a long-term backer Act Venture Capital.
Why: The purpose of the funding has not been disclosed however it is believed to be used towards expansion.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Formula One aspirant Lucca Allen has launched an investment offering to raise funding.
What: €350K is targeted through sponsorship and investment. It is looking for investors to pay €50K for a 1% share of future earnings up to €150K plus their money back. For €250K investors can get a 5% share of earnings up to a total return of €1m. Both deals will expire after 10 years. Sponsorship packages will cost from €10K a race.
Why: Lucca Allen needs the funding to pursue his racing career in Japan to race on the highly competitive Super Formula circuit.
Source: Irish Independent
We are like a broken record over the past number of years saying how punitive CGT is at 33% and how miserable the entrepreneurs relief is at €1m compared to other countries and in particular the UK.
Some manifestos published this week have pledged to reduce this. We think anyone being canvased should bring this up so the politicians know this is a real insult to entrepreneurs who sacrifice so much in the pursuit of creation and get penalised versus their international peers or their domestic peers who decide to go off-shore.
40%
The rise in rents in the Republic of Ireland from 2007 to 2019, the second highest increase in the European Union, with overall rents rising by an average of 21% across the EU within the same period. According to
@EU_Eurostat. @IrishTimesBiz
19%
5.6%
The annual reduction in the average wholesale prices by Irish producers for 2019, according to @CSOIreland
3%
The Gross Value Added (GVA) contribution by Dublin Airport to the Irish economy amounting to €9.8bn, according to the study by economic consultants interVISTAS.
@irishexaminer
38.3%
The year-on-year increase in the new residential buildings under construction for December 2019, amounting to almost 15,000, according to the latest GeoView Residential Buildings Report by GeoDirectory and EY-DKM.@irishexaminer
£1.58bn
The estimated contribution from the internet sector to the Northern Irish economy, according to the Internet Association. @BelTel
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