Anderson Anderson & Brown Corporate Finance has released their quarterly Deals+ update for Q3 2019.
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Despite strong headwinds and growing economic and political uncertainty, the Scottish M&A market has remained resilient over the course of Q3 2019 with positive sentiment and rising valuations.
There have been a number of stand-out transactions over the course of Q3 including the acquisition of The Scottish Salmon Company by Faroe Island based salmon producer Bakkafrost for a consideration of £516m and SSE’s disposal of their energy services business to OVO Energy for £500m.
Elsewhere, leading paper-manufacturer Arjowiggins successfully completed an MBO out of administration ensuring the future of two historic paper mills and the saving of 560 UK jobs.
The Oil & Gas services sector continued to show recovery in Q3 with a number of key deals across the quarter including the sale of Aberdeen-based Proserv’s subsea communications business Nautronix to Norwegian subsea electronic manufacturer Imenco AS and leading subsea and solutions provider Ashtead Technology’s acquisition of Underwater Cutting Solutions, a deal that further bolstered their IMR and decommissioning capabilities and became Ashtead’s fifth deal since the firm was acquired by Buckthorn Partners in 2016.
Fund-raising activity in Q3 2019 has shown no sign of slowing with technology investment continuing to attract significant fund and VC investment across Scotland, including Mercia Technologies £1.8m investment into student-engagement platform Gecko Labs and Panoramic Growth Equity’s capital investment into award-winning connectivity business Vaioni Group.
Furthermore, leading private company valuations platform MarktoMarket successfully raised £1.75m from 24Haymarket, Techstart Ventures and Par Equity to accelerate product development and enter new markets.
A Valuations Insight on the UK travel industry is provided by MarktoMarket on page 12, very topical given Thomas Cook’s high profile recent demise.
