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.
We would like to remind you that The Real Deal 2019, Ireland’s premier SME event, will take place in Goffs, Co. Kildare on October 10th.
This week we were delighted to announce that Breege O’Donoghue will be joining the Legend of Business Interview at The Real Deal 2019.
Breege O’Donoghue of Penneys/ Primark, who officially retired from the business in 2016 after 37 years of outstanding leadership is joining The Real Deal 2019 where she will discuss her career in a one-on-one interview with Matt Cooper. Aside from her involvement in Penneys/ Primark, Breege is currently the Chair and Non-Exec Director for a number of businesses.
Breege, with others, was instrumental to the success of Penneys/Primark forming part of a tight-knit leadership team that transformed the Irish fashion retailer into a global success story. She has been one of the key drivers of Primark’s expansion over the years, such as its move into the US in 2015 which started with a store in Boston.
Under the guidance of the leadership team, Primark has gone from strength to strength with more than 360 stores in 12 markets, with 80,000+ staff, and in Year Ending September 2018, had revenues of £7.4bn with profits of £8.43m.
Join Breege on the day where she will discuss her journey which started in a small village in the West of Ireland.
Other speakers on the day include Bobby Healy, Alan Cox, Helen Tynan, David McKernan, Donagh Kelly, Nikki Evans and Liam Sheedy with one more speaker to be announced. Each panel will be moderated by Matt Cooper.
As a valued member of our network, we would like to remind you that it is likely to be a sell-out and once sold out, we cannot accommodate any more.
To claim your 50% off ticket, simply visit www.therealdeal2019.ie and use the voucher code Renatus50
If you have done so already, we look forward to seeing you there.
This event will be sold out in coming days, there are only a handful of spaces left so please book your place now to avoid disappointment.
For more information, please visit the website here and the 2018 highlights video can be viewed here.
We hope to see you on the day!
Deal Details: Irish technology company Ocrex, which trades as AutoEntry, has been snapped up by accounting software giant Sage for an undisclosed sum.
The company, founded by Brendan Woods in 2011, uses artificial intelligence (AI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to automate data entry on items such as invoices and receipts on behalf of accountants and bookkeepers. It employs about 200 people, 26 of whom are in Dublin.
London-listed Sage is the second largest software company in the UK. The company, which reported revenues of £1.86 billion last year, has over three million customers in 23 countries. It employs about 13,000 people, including about 600 in the Republic of Ireland.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: In addition to founder Brendan Woods, Signature Capital, ACT, Chairman Cathal McGloin of Feedhenry fame and Enterprise Ireland were shareholders. The use of scanning and using AI to process accounting transactions is only beginning. We would guess most accounts departments with ten plus people could save bodies if they have not improved their processes via the offerings of autoentry or similar.
Source:Irish Times
Deal Details: Xenon Partners, a software-focused technology private equity firm, has completed the acquisition of Metricfire, a leading provider in time series data monitoring. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Dublin company Metricfire was founded by Dave Concannon and Charlie von Metzradt in 2012. It offers cloud monitoring and boasts two products that help developers and IT administrators monitor large quantities of performance metrics.
Xenon Partners acquires and operates early and mid-stage technology companies, with a particular emphasis on B2B SaaS solutions. Xenon provides its portfolio companies with deep operational expertise in growth marketing, sales, design, product engineering, and operations to scale to the next level.
Advisers: Alan O’Driscoll and Majella Crennan of Flynn O’Driscoll advised the sellers.
The buyer was advised by Californian law firm Reicker Pfau with Venture Legal Services as Irish counsel.
Renatus Comment: Xenon Partners chairman is Jonathan Siegel, who has previously backed a number of successful Irish tech ventures including Intercom and Cork cybersecurity company Barricade, which was bought by Sophos in 2016
Source: PR Web
Deal Details: Existing director shareholders CEO Clem Ryan and Sean Ashmore have bought out a number of shareholders of Kildare’s local radio station, Kfm, in a transaction valuing the business at €3m.
Ashmore is a founding member of KFM and is the majority shareholder of Wicklow’s East Coast FM, as well as a significant shareholder in Dublin’s Sunshine 106.8.
Ryan, also a founding member of Kfm and current CEO, said buying out the business “represented an unmissable opportunity” for himself and Ashmore.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Local radio stations have proven more resilient than local newspapers but the prospects of a big realisation are less obvious because if Communicorp or News Corp do not buy or are stopped by the CCPC, it is hard to see who would buy them.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal Details: Embattled fund manager Neil Woodford has sold 9.1 million shares in Irish life sciences investment firm Malin.
Woodford Investment Management held a near 23pc stake in Malin prior to the share sale. ISIF are significant shareholders also.
Releasing interim results earlier this month, Malin said the aggregate fair value of its interests in its investee companies was €385m
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Malin IPO’d at €11.10 in 2015, peaked at €15.27 in mid 2016 and closed at €4.08 Friday having traded as low as €2.0 in recent weeks. it would probably only take one of the portfolio to really click in the international life sciences space to get it back into profit for any of the IPO investors.
Source: Irish Independent
Deal Details: The High Court has confirmed the appointment of an examiner to water firm Celtic Pure which was at the centre of recent product recalls.
Declan McDonald of PWC was appointed as examiner to the company, which employs 75 people.
Significant cash flow difficulties were caused by suspended orders, monthly sales for August dropping by 75% and the company incurring €3m in unforeseen once-off costs.
The court was told that since his appointment as examiner there have been 20 expressions of interest from potential investors in the company.
McDonald now has a maximum of 100 days since his appointment to put together a scheme with the creditors.
Source: The Journal
Deal details: US oil giant Weatherford International has gone into examinership in Ireland to restructure its $8.35bn (€7.63bn) in debt.
Michael McAteer, managing partner at Grant Thornton Ireland, has been appointed interim examiner to Weatherford and the full examinership petition is due to be heard in the High Court on October 7th.
Weatherford said that volatility in the oil and gas market had affected its trading and finances, with revenues down from $14.9bn in 2014 to $5.7bn last year.
Weatherford has its headquarters in Houston, Texas, and is tax-resident in Switzerland but has its registered office in Ireland.
The examinership process gives a company protection from creditors for up to 100 days in order to restructure its finances. The company is aims to exit examinership within 40 days.
Source: The Sunday Times
Deal details: Altada Technology Solutions, a data compliance and software company backed by US businessman Jeffrey Leo, has gone into examinership.
Joseph Walsh of JW Accountants was appointed as examiner by the High Court. According to the high court, Allan Beechinor and a company called Algo Data Analytical issued a High Court legal action against Altada earlier this month.
Altada was founded in 2017 by Allan Beechinor and Brendan Cannon, and has offices in Ireland and France. The company employed 34 staff and had clients in the US and EU markets in 2019.
Source: The Sunday Times
Michael Fetherston emerges as the reported preferred bidder to buy the K Club
Deal details: According to The Irish Times, Dublin nursing homes operator and hotelier Michael Fetherston has emerged as the preferred bidder to buy the K Club golf resort, which was put on the market last year by Michael Smurfit seeking up to €80 million.
Apart from Mr Fetherston, it is understood that two other bidders, both foreign-based investors who own existing Irish hospitality assets, remain interested in buying the Kildare five-star resort that hosted the Ryder Cup golf tournament in 2006.
A sale is expected to be wrapped up in coming months at a price below the €80m asking price.
Source: Irish Times
Sports Direct proposes takeover deal for Goals Soccer Centres
Deal details: Sports Direct has revealed a £3.8m (€4.27m) takeover approach for troubled Goals Soccer Centres ahead of the five-a-side football pitch firm’s shares delisting next week.
Sports Direct said it put forward a 5p-a-share approach on September 5 for Goals, in which it already holds an 18.9% stake.
It comes after shares in Goals were suspended in March amid a major accounting scandal, with the firm under investigation for an alleged £12m (€13.5m) VAT fraud.
Sports Direct must now make a firm offer or walk away by 5pm on October 21 under City takeover rules.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Greencore seeks to diversify with acquisitions in sushi, salads and hot meals
Deal details: Sandwich maker Greencore plans a series of bolt-on acquisitions worth up to £50m (€56.2m) each in a bid to diversify into new areas such as sushi, salads and hot meals over the next three to five years.
Greencore Group plc is a leading manufacturer of convenience foods which was established in 1991. The company is the world’s largest sandwich manufacturer.
Source: The Sunday Times
Abtran founders in talks to buy back CCI majority stake
Deal details: According to the Sunday Independent, Private equity fund Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI) is in talks with a number of the original owners and founders of Abtran, to sell back a majority stake in the Cork-based outsourcing company. CCI bought the stake in 2015 in what was one of its largest investments, paying more than €40m for the majority stake.
Abtran is a leading provider of Customer and Business Process Management (BPM) and Outsourcing (BPO) services. Established in 1997, the company became well known to the public for its role with Irish Water and its handling of water bills.
Source: The Sunday Independent
Goodbody may hive off capital markets
Deal details: Goodbody stockbroking firm is understood to be working on a structure to allow for the sale of the business which would guarantee that its capital markets division is sold off separately in the next five years.
It is believed that Irish Life would prefer not to buy the capital markets division while a Chinese bidder is also unlikely to want the division and instead preferring to acquire the wealth management side of the firm. Goodbody rival Davy is said to be the third interested party.
Source: The Sunday Independent
Moran plans new €50m offices
Deal details: Noel Moran is aiming to build a €50m business park in Trim, Co. Meath. The Navan entrepreneur’s plans will include four new offices to facilitate the expansion of his firm Prepaid Financial Services (PFS).
After deferring plans to float on London’s Aim market until the third quarter of next year or at least until Brexit has been concluded, Moran said the investment in new offices would cater for the expansion of the PFS’s 130-strong Irish workforce which is currently based in Navan.
Source: The Sunday 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 details of key recent executive and board level appointments
Pladis Appoints New Managing Director For UK & Ireland
Biscuit and snacks manufacturer Pladis has appointed David Murray as Managing director for the UK & Ireland. He will report to chief executive officer, Salman Amin, effective October 1. Mr Murray has over 25 years of leadership experience in branded consumer products spanning a broad range of general management and functional roles. He spent much of his career at PepsiCo working across a variety of market geographies and business disciplines. Most recently, he served as SVP & general manager for PepsiCo’s Global Concentrate division, with operations in 11 countries employing over 1,800 employees servicing PepsiCo’s worldwide beverage operation. He previously held a variety of positions for PepsiCo Europe, including nutrition category general manager, Western Europe, and business unit general manager for Tropicana & Quaker in the UK.
Sherry FitzGerald appoints new head of residential
Estate agent Sherry FitzGerald has appointed Marian Finnegan as its new head of residential. She will replace Michael Grehan who has headed up the residential business for 16 years. Ms Finnegan is a regular commentator on property industry trends and will continue to lead the research and advisory team at Sherry FitzGerald. Grehan will take up a new role as chairman of residential and countrywide within the group. The current chairman of residential, Simon Ensor, will step down and will remain as a senior sales director, continuing to work in the marketplace.
Google appoints new Head of Sales for Retail
Google has appointed Joanne Hillery (née Dever) to the role of Sales Manager for Retail focusing on luxury, beauty, furniture and gifting. She will be based in Dublin. Prior to Google, Ms Hillery worked in London for Burberry for over 7 years in a variety of roles across Finance and Digital. She is a Chartered Accountant and previously worked at BDO as a Senior Associate and subsequently at Selfridges in London as a Commercial Finance Analyst.
Petrel Resources appoints new directors to its board
Petrel Resources has appointed the first of two new non-executive directors to its board, with Michel Fayad joining the board immediately. Mr Fayad is also currently a director of several other companies including Netoil Inc, Boost Incorporated and Eiffel Firm Sarl. The company also said it would appoint Roger Tamraz as a director after Petrel undertakes its first major oil and gas transaction in the Middle East & North Africa.
DAC Beachcroft recruits two new partners in Dublin
International law firm DAC Beachcroft has bolstered its Dublin office through the appointment of two new Partners. Corporate partner Sharon McCaffrey and competition law partner Joanne Finn have joined the firm, bringing with them a team of two senior associates, one associate and a secretary. The appointments follow the promotion of Niamh McKeever to partner in May this year, to head up the firm’s healthcare group which provides a full service in the area of medical malpractice in Ireland.
Kneat Appoints New Chief Financial Officer
Kneat announced that it has appointed Hugh Kavanagh as its Chief Financial Officer following the resignation of Sarah Oliver who will assist in the transition. Mr. Kavanagh has held senior positions at several multi-national companies in the software and life sciences industries, most recently as Chief Financial Officer of Mainstay Medical during which time he completed an initial public offering and several rounds of funding. He will be located at Kneat’s operational headquarters in Limerick, Ireland.
Aisling McCabe Appointed Strategy Director of Cogs & Marvel
Aisling McCabe been appointed as strategy director at Cogs & Marvel with responsibility for the group’s EMEA operations. Prior to joining Cogs & Marvel, Ms McCabe worked for RTÉ where she spearheaded the launch of the RTÉ player in 2009, and since 2012 held the role of head of strategic platforms & partnerships with responsibility for shaping and growing RTÉ’s relationships with partners including Sky, Google and Apple. She also worked with The Irish Times and UNESCO Paris.
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.
Club Travel Limited, based in Dublin, is one of Ireland’s largest online travel agents and tour operators. It operates in four areas of outbound travel, Corporate, Retail, Online and Wholesale. During FY18, turnover grew by c. 4.7% to €152.3m which the company attributes to increased activity in all areas of the company’s operations. EBITDA was flat year-on-year due the increases in admin expenses. This is an asset-light business with a cumulative CapEx spend of c. €430k over the last two fiscal periods. The company employs 200 staff at an annual cost of c. €7.4m. The company paid a dividend of €516k, down slightly from €587k a year earlier and ended the period with €56m cash on its balance sheet and no debt. The business is owned and led by Liam Lonergan, a co-founder of Ryanair.
Kedington Limited, led by Managing Director, Matt Porter, is an Irish IT network infrastructure solutions provider offering IT network solutions, structured cabling and data centre engineering services to the public and private sector. FY18 was a good year for the company which experienced a c. 26% growth in turnover to €27.5m and a c. 165% increase in EBITDA to c. €3.1m., part of which can be traced to to a three percentage point increase in gross margins. During the period cash decreased by c. €500k to to a closing balance of c. €1.97m and there was no debt on the balance sheet. Prior to Dec’18, the business was majority owned by Matt Porter (66%) and Colm Lyons (29%). During Dec’18, the owners of Kedington Limited entered into a share purchase agreement and are now part of the Excel Redstone Group,
Who: Galway based Vivasure Medical has agreed a financing deal.
What: €10m has been backed by the European Investment Bank.
Why: New financing will be used by Vivasure to expand research and development of medical devices to provide non-invasive cardiology treatment.
Source: RTE
Who: Petrel Resources, the exploration firm led by David Horgan has secured investment.
What: New investors have purchased a 30% stake for €560,000.
Why: The fund will be used to develop prospects in Iraq and North Africa.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: The Henderson Group, who are the owners of the Spar, Eurospar, Vivo and Vivoxtra convenience brands in Northern Irleand.
What: The group will invest more than £2.4m in a forecourt development on Newry road, Banbridge.
Why: The funds will be used to develop a forecourt on Newry road in Banbridge, as part of the group’s £26m investment into new stores, extensions and refurbishments in the next 12 months.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: Artificial Intelligence innovation hub CeADAR secures funding.
What: €12m has been backed by Enterprise Ireland and additional €16m from industry and competitive sources.
Why: The funding will enable CeADAR to expand its operations to meet the growing demand from Irish industry and SMEs to implement AI technologies into their businesses to gain competitive advantage.
Source: Enterprise Ireland
Who: UK-listed Primary Health Properties has raised additional equity.
What: £100m (€113m) was raised after initial plans to raise £75m (€84.36m).
Why: The funds will be used to bankroll the development of new health centres, including four properties in Ireland that will require a capital commitment of €55m and to fund the development of four sites in the UK.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: Neuromod Devices, a company that focuses on non-invasive nerve technology, has closed a capital raise.
What: €8m funding round was led by existing investors Fountain Healthcare Partners and Moffett Investment Holdings, with venture-debt provided by new investors Kreos Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.
Why: The funds will be used to accelerate the commercialisation in Europe of its Lenire tinnitus (the perception of noise or ringing in the ears) treatment device, to scale up manufacturing, and to progress its regulatory strategy in the United States.
Source: Irish Independent
Who: HSBC has announced lending fund in Northern Ireland.
What: £150m (€168.62m) is part of a wider £14b (€15.74b) fund for firms around the UK which has ring-fenced cash for international businesses and the agriculture sector.
Why: The aim of the fund is to help small and medium-sized local firms cope with Brexit.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Who: Dublin-based start-up Modulz, founded by Colm Tuite, has completed new funding round.
What: €4.2m has been backed by Irish venture capital firm Frontline Ventures and Intercom co-founder Des Traynor, also London venture capital firm LocalGlobe, Product Hunt co-founder Ryan Hoover and Vedkia Jain of Weekend Fund
Why: The funds will be used for development of the digital products that does not require the users to write code.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Dublin-based pharma company Amryt has raised funding. Amryt is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and delivering innovative new treatments to help improve the lives of patients with rare and orphan diseases.
What: The business confirmed last week that it has raised $60m from investors to fund the takeover of Aegerion.
Why: The funds will be used to fund the takeover of Aegerion, a move that will see the creation of one of the largest orphan and rare disease drug companies.
Source: The Sunday Business Post
Who: Irish software company iQuate has raised funding. iQuate is a software group that specialises in identifying the range of often complex software licences and other IT services that companies use across their technology infrastructure, allowing them to better streamline their approach.
What: The business raised $10m (€9.14m) to drive further expansion, backed by Dublin and Silicon Valley based Atlantic Bridge Venture Partners and private investors.
Why: The funds will be used to help refocus its strategy and take advantage of the opportunities it saw from the move away from software to cloud solutions for its IT needs.
Source: The Sunday Independent
Who: Belfast-based Neurovalens has raised funding. Neurovalens is a health tech start-up run by co-founders Jason McKeown and Paul McGeoch.
What: The health tech start-up has secured a £1m grant from Invest Northern Ireland.
Why: The money will be used to create 22 new jobs to assist in the development of a medical device for the treatment of obesity and undertake clinical trials in collaboration with Ulster University and University of California San Diego.
Source: The Sunday Business Post
Instead of ‘Thought for the Week’, we are bringing you a weekly tracker using odds from oddschecker and taking off bookmakers margin to come up with deemed percentage probability of outcomes.
The current markets read as follows:
Last week had major shifts and this week just had pronounced positions where there “favourite” outcomes hardened
Some Sort of Brexit:
If you are not in agreement with any of above you can get the odds here and back your opinion: Oddschecker – Brexit
€30.4K
The average first post-university salary offered to young job-seekers based on data provided by Ireland’s biggest 250 employers, according to Gradireland. @IndoBusiness
4.1%
The year-on-year increase in mortgage approvals for August 2019 amounting to 4355 approvals to the value of €968m, According to Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).@ IrishTimesBiz
2%
The inflation rate of grocery items in Irish supermarkets in the 12 weeks to September 8, according to Kantar survey. @examinerbiz
2.7%
The year-on-year decline in the number of overseas trips to Ireland for August 2019 amounting to 393,000, according to @CSOIreland
3.6%
The year-on-year increase in house prices in Belfast for August 2019, according to Zoopla’s index. @BelTel
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.
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