Renatus’ Weekly M&A Newsletter – 23/05/2021
May 23, 2021Renatus’ Weekly M&A Newsletter – 06/06/2021
June 6, 2021
Renatus Weekly M&A & Company Performance Private Equity Newsletter 30/05/2021
Dear Reader,
Please find below this week’s newsletter covering the latest M&A, company performance, fundraisings and executive moves.
CRS Award
We are delighted to report that Renatus portfolio company CRS (https://go.renatus.ie/e/
It has been a very exciting year in CRS for Renatus and our partners John and Patrick Tyrrell since the investment, the business has experienced strong growth and recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Liverpool to support its UK expansion.
M&A ACTIVITY
Tango Telecom is acquired by CSG
Deal Details: Limerick-based Tango Telecom has been acquired by Nasdaq-listed CSG for an undisclosed sum.
Tango, founded in 1999, is a leading provider of Data Monetisation Solutions for evolving mobile networks globally. Its technology supports more than one billion subscribers in over 50 countries.
CSG, headquartered in Colorado, was founded in 1982 as a division of First Data. It provides business support systems (BSS) software and services, primarily to the telecommunications industry.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: This is the second Irish Telecom software business sold this month following Infobip’s acquisition of Anam Technologies.
Initial seed capital was raised from Delta Partners in March 2000. Comptel Corporation acquired 20% of the company in March 2002, as part of a partnership and OEM agreement. Other investors include Shannon Development; Tango’s non-executive chairman Dr. Jim Mountjoy, formerly founder and CEO of Euristix and; the founding team of Tango Telecom.
Tango has a long-standing relationship with CSG. It was reported that they won at least six customers jointly prior to the transaction. This a great example of how a business relationship can evolve into an acquisition.
Source: Irish Times
Bidvest Noonan acquires Cordant Services
Deal Details: Security and facility management company Bidvest Noonan has agreed to acquire a leading UK competitor Cordant Services for an undisclosed amount.
Cordant Services, founded in 1957, employs over 7,000 people and operates across 1,900 client locations throughout the UK.
Bidvest Noonan is a leading provider for services such as Security, Cleaning, Front of House and Ancillary Services in the UK & Ireland.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: Earlier this year, Bidvest Noonan announced the acquisition of Axis, Ancove and Interact. It is reported that this transaction will bring the total number of employees to more than 27,000 and annual revenues beyond GBP 700m.
Bidvest acquired Noonan in 2017 for a reported enterprise value of €175m.
A recent report released by the British Cleaning Council (BCC) shows the cleaning, hygiene and waste sector remains one of the UK’s top 10 industries and contributed over £55bn to the UK economy. The report estimates that there is over 66k companies operating in sector. We expect to see Bidvest Noonan continue their M&A journey in this fragmented industry.
Source: Bidvest Noonan
Reach Group acquires Delpac
Deal Details: Reach Group has announced the acquisition of Delpac Ltd, including Delpac’s gifting business Floraville-Seasons. The deal consideration was not disclosed. Prior to the transaction, Delpac was owned by Charlie Curran.
Reach Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mediahuis Ireland, is a logistics and supply chain specialist, operating in a variety of sectors across multiple channels.
Delpac, established in 1986, is Ireland’s leading supplier of bespoke packaging products to fashion and grocery retail chains and the food and hospitality sectors.
Delpac also makes custom-branded disposable coffee cups for hundreds of coffee shops around the country from its manufacturing facility in Kerry.
Advisers: None mentioned
Renatus Comment: The former Independent News & Media (INM) rebranded as Mediahuis Ireland earlier this month after acquiring INM in 2019 at a reported transaction value of €145m.
Mediahuis is well known for the Independent news platform in Ireland but also own several other companies in the Irish market such as the Reach Group, Auto Records, CarsIreland .ie and Hegadon. Within the Reach Group sits Newspread. Newspread is responsible for distributing newspapers to over 6,000 retailers across the 32 counties.
Source: Reach Group
Stream BioEnergy receives investment from Pioneer Point Partners
Deal Details: Pioneer Point Partners’ maiden infrastructure fund has made its first two investments in an Irish biogas platform and a Spanish renewables company totaling EUR 120m. Pioneer Infrastructure Partners announced it is committing EUR 60m to Stream BioEnergy Limited, a developer and operator of anaerobic digestion plants in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Its initial investment will be used in part to buy Tully I, a 3 MW operating AD plant, from investors including funds managed by Foresight Group. The plant, which is located in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, has been developed and is operated by Stream.
Advisers: KPMG team led by Gary Borland and Russell Smyth (financial), Gowlings and Arthur Cox (legal), Fichtner (technical) and Tolvik (commercial) advised Pioneer on the Stream acquisition.
Renatus Comment: Anaerobic Digestion is an efficient and environmentally beneficial technology for the management of waste material that can help Ireland reach the EU’s Landfill Directive targets, which require the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill to alternative waste management methods at increasing rates over the coming years.
According to the Financial Times, in 2020, $152bn of new money poured into ESG-labelled products and the total global assets in these products hit more than $1.6tn. The trend towards ESG friendly investments is gathering speed and is on the minds of every investment manager.
Source: Pioneer Point
Clarification
Last week we reported Welltel’s acquisition of Strencom with incorrect adviser details.
PwC Corporate Finance provided lead sell side advisory services to Strencom led by Mark McEnroe and Laura Gilbride.
Financial & Tax DD was provided to Welltel by Ronan Somers, Paraic Burke, Rebecca Greene and Andre Vermuelen of PwC.
Mea Culpa!
Deal Updates & Other News
Advent to sell Circet stake
Deal Details: Advent International (Advent), a global PE firm, is reportedly in exclusive talks to sell its stake in European telecommunications service provider Circet to ICG.
Since Advent joined forces with Circet 2018, the company’s revenues have reportedly tripled from €775m in 2017 to €2.2bn in 2021, and employee numbers grew from 3,000 to over 10,600.
Circet has entered seven new countries, including Ireland, in the last three years. This expansion has been supported by an organic and acquisitive growth strategy, with Circet successfully acquiring 10 companies since 2018.
As part of the potential deal, Circet’s founding team and managers will reportedly further increase their stakes in the company.
Source: Advent International
Joe Walsh Pilgrimtours on the market
Deal Details: Joe Walsh Pilgrimtours Ltd, which trades under the brand names Joe Walsh Tours, Concorde Travel and Pilgrimages Abroad, has been put up for sale as part of a provisional liquidation of the company.
The company, which employed 30 people, was forced to close its doors after 50 years of business as a result of the pandemic.
In 2020 the company recorded losses of €7.5m. The bulk of its 3,000 creditors are people who had booked and paid for tours.
Source: Irish Times
Beauparc close to deal
Deal Details: A fund under management by Macquarie is reportedly close to acquiring 100% of waste company Beauparc. The reported value is close to €1bn.
Beauparc was founded by Eamon Waters in 1990 and acquired Greenstar in 2016. In 2019 Blackstone took an equity stake in the group.
It was reported that JP Morgan had fielded 30 expressions of interest from US, UK and European private equity and infrastructure funds.
Source: The Sunday Times
COMPANY PERFORMANCE
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
Dublin-based Galco Steel Ltd was established in 1967 when Joseph Quinn purchased the assets of what was Carthorn. Over the years, the business has grown significantly while still being owned by Quinn.
In its financial year to May 2020, the business reconised revenue of c. €29.9m (down 5.1% YoY) while EBITDA was c. €3.6m (down 4.6% YoY). The business generated revenue from Ireland (c. 81%), the UK (c. 18%) and sub-one percent from the rest of the world.
Galco Steel Ltd. employed an average of 273 people during the year at a cost of c. €11.2m.
Dennehy Commercials Ltd has been in operation for over 40 years providing a wide range of commercial vehicles for sale, service, and hire. This includes being one of the leading DOE Testing Facilities in Limerick.
In its financial year to December 2019, the business recognised revenue of c. €50.6m (up 7.3% YoY) while EBITDA was c. €2.6m (down 13.8% YoY), partially caused by total employee costs increasing by c. €346k YoY.
There was a net cash increase of c. €1.2m after c. €2.8m was invested in fixed assets, offset by receipts of c. €1.6m from the sale of fixed assets.
The business is owned by Rory and David Dennehy. It employed an average of 73 people during the year at a cost of c. €3.2m.
RECENT FUNDRAISINGS
Who: Wayflyer, one of Europe’s fastest growing fintech start-ups, has raised funding. Founded in 2019 by Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierce, Wayflyer was spun out of another company founded by Mr Corbett known as Conjura.
What: $76m (€62m) round was led by Left Lane Capital, with support from partners of DST Global, QED Investors, Speedinvest and Zinal Growth, the family office of Guillaume Pousaz (founder of Checkout. com).
The company secured $10.2m in October 2020 in a seed funding round.
Why: The funds will be used to support Wayflyer’s product development and international expansion.
To cope with demand for its cash advance product, Wayflyer has also expanded its debt facilities by an additional $100m and recently signed a major partnership with Adobe Commerce in a move that will further increase its capital deployment capabilities.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Asset Class, a Dublin-headquartered fintech formed in 2000, has secured financing.
What: $3m (€2.46m) round was led by Angel Oak Ventures.
Co-chief executive of Angel Oak Companies, Sreeni Prabhu, and Co-president of Angel Oak Commercial Lending, Nik Chillar, will join the Asset Class board of directors.
Why: The funding will be used towards expanding its technical development team and for increasing its sales and marketing infrastructure.
Advisers: Conor Sheahan and the team at CKS Finance and Sean Wallace and team at Wallace Corporate Counsel LLP supported Asset Class on this round.
Source: BusinessWire
Who: Agtech investor Yield Lab Europe announced a close of second fund.
What: The new fund of almost €50m is backed by The European Investment Fund through the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), Invest-NL in the Netherlands and Allied Irish Bank.
In 2019 Enterprise Ireland contributed €10m of the €21m raised in the first fund.
Why: The new fund will invest at the seed and Series A stages of companies.
Some of its investments in Ireland include bee health tech start-up ApisProtect, IT-Carlow spin-out MicroGen Biotech and Micron Agritech, which develops parasite testing kits for animals.
Source: Irish Times
Who: GenoME Diagnostics, ovarian cancer diagnostics company spun out from Queen’s University Belfast, has raised seed funding.
What: £300,000 (€347,000) round was supported by QUBIS, the commercialisation arm of Queen’s University, Deepbridge Capital and Co-Fund NI.
Why: The purpose of funding was not disclosed.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Lifesciences software company, Qualio, secured further funding. Qualio was founded by Irishman Robert Fenton in 2012.
What: $50m (€40.8m) series B round was co-led by Tiger Global and Menlo Ventures. Dublin-based Frontline Ventures, MHS Capital, Operator Partners, Sorenson Ventures and Storm Ventures, also participated.
Last July Qualio raised $11m from investors.
Why: The funding is to be used to extend its electronic quality management software (eQMS) and services for life sciences customers, and to also fuel investment in product and engineering team growth.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Output Sports, a Dublin-based company co-founded by Martin O’Reilly, Darragh Whelan and Julian Eberle in 2018, that has developed a wearable device for exercise analysis, is to raise investment.
What: The company is seeking to raise a minimum of €5m in Series A round.
Last March it raised €1.3m in a seed funding round led by the Atlantic Bridge University Fund, Elkstone Partners, Enterprise Ireland and angel investors.
Why: The funds will be used for expansion in the US.
Source: Independent
Who: Belfast heavy machinery company Machinery Partner, founded by CIarang Gillen in 2018, closes funding round.
What: The company has raised $4m backed by Clement Cazalot in an oversubscribed funding round. Mr Cazalot is an entrepreneur, angel investor and MD of global start-up funding and mentoring programme Techstars Boston in which Machinery Partner was one of 10 companies worldwide to win a spot. The organisation has 2,590 portfolio companies, including Irish start-ups such as SwiftComply and Talivest.
Why: The purpose of funding was not disclosed.
Source: Irish Times
Who: Lough Gill distillery secured bank financing. Lough Gill distillery was founded by Dave Raethorne.
What: The Company reportedly secured a €15m funding line from US bank, PNC.
Why: The funds will be used to invest in the Sligo whiskey distillery.
Source: The Sunday Times
EXECUTIVE AND BOARD APPOINTMENTS
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.
Chris Clinch
Source:
(LinkedIn)
Independent.ie
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
The Red C poll in today’s Sunday Business Post highlights (based on specific questions) that the housing crisis is driving voters the way of Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin received 25% of the votes in the most recent general election and the opinion poll suggests they would receive 29% today.
Fine Gael have risen from 21% at last years general election to 29% and Fianna Fáil have dropped from 22% to 14%. Independents and greens have both dropped 2% each.
It is one to keep an eye on for everybody in particular with regard to the effect on income, pension and capital taxes to fund increased government spending.
We are definitely seeing people today looking to transfer some of their corporate success to their personal bank account in advance of any anti entrepreneurial taxes emerging with shifts in power. Regardless who is in power the bill for covid won’t be far off the bill for the bank bailout and the books are going to have to be balanced which may pinch on taxes.
@RenatusCapital Tweets
3.5%
The year-on-year decrease in the volume of goods handled by all Irish ports in 2020 amounting to 51,364,000 tonnes, according to @CSOIreland
13%
The year-on-year decrease for the UK goods imports to Ireland for Q1 2021 amounting to £4.5bn (€5.21bn), according to BBC. @ONS
90.1% & 97.8%
The year-on-year increase in the Irish retail volume and value indices, respectively, for April 2021 with the highest annual increase in Furniture & Lighting (+694%), according to @CSOIreland
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ABOUT RENATUS
Renatus was established in 2014 to provide growth funding to growing Irish SMEs and to partner with ambitious management teams to help companies reach their full potential.
Renatus targets companies with sustainable earnings of €1m+ and valuations typically in the range of €5m – €20m. Our typical solutions include:
- Succession planning
- Management buyouts
- Management buy-ins
- Growth financing – both organic and acquisition growth financing
- Full and partial share sale.
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