EY North teams advise on deals worth more than £500m in Q4

EY teams in the North of England acted on eight transactions worth a total of more than £500mn in the final quarter of 2024.

EY provided a range of advice as Oakley Capital, a UK private equity house, invested in cybersecurity company, Assured Data Protection. EY North teams along with other UK colleagues provided support, including corporate finance advice, financial and tax due diligence, technical due diligence, tax structuring and sale and purchase agreement advisory.

Meanwhile, EY acted as the corporate finance advisor to LMF Energy Services - a national installer of renewable energy measures - on its investment from private equity group, Soho Square Capital. EY in the North provided advice and transaction diligence support to LMF Energy Services as part of the deal.

In another technology-related transaction, EY dealmakers in Yorkshire supported Newcastle-based managed IT service provider, Aspire Technology Group, in acquiring part of the services of IT company, Cloud CoCo Limited, providing financial and tax diligence services.

EY in Yorkshire also provided advice to private equity group, Leon Capital on its purchase of energy and sustainability consultancy, Longevity Partners.

Ben Coggin (pictured), partner (Transaction Services) at EY in Yorkshire, said: “The UK’s deals market has encountered a challenging period over the last couple of years, with a range of economic headwinds limiting activity. However, the market is beginning to see greenshoots of recovery, with more businesses entering a range of investments, purchases, divestments and more.

“The final quarter of 2024 was a particularly strong period for our deals teams in the North of England, and we were delighted to support a variety of businesses on significant transactions within both the technology and energy sectors – two buoyant sectors in which we expect to see further deals activity in 2025. Our forward-looking deals pipeline is strong, and we look forward with optimism to supporting our clients in achieving their objectives through further strategic transactions as the year progresses.”

EY North, along with colleagues in the Midlands, provided corporate finance advice to communication management specialist, Adare SEC, on its sale to communication technology provider Mail Metrics.

In another collaboration with Midlands-based colleagues, EY North supported mid-market private equity firm, ECI’s investment in professional services automation (PSA) software provider CMap, with EY providing financial and tax due diligence services.

EY experts in the North West also worked with Moneypenny, which is owned by ECI, on refinancing with new lender Macquarie, providing financial and commercial due diligence services.

Meanwhile, EY in Manchester provided corporate finance advice to property services business Liberty, part of ForHousing, on its carve-out and sale to construction company, Wates Group.

Mark Clephan, UK Corporate Finance Leader and North M&A Partner at EY, said: “We had a strong second half of 2024, which saw our regional business collaborating with our sector experts across EY to support clients. Our recent deal completions represent our ambition and our intent to continue supporting private and regional businesses with their strategic transactions.”