Irwin Mitchell Report Highlights Opportunities For The Sector

A new report has revealed that manufacturing businesses in England attracted significantly more venture capital last year despite a fall in M&A activity in the sector.

According to data from national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, there was a 29.2% increase in the number of PE-backed transactions in the sector despite a six percent fall in the total number of deals in the sector.

The study found that across England, 28.5% of M&A in the sector was supported by venture capital, whilst 12 months ago the figure stood at 20.6%.

Manufacturing businesses in the South East were the subject of almost a third (31.5%) of all M&A in the sector. The North West was home to 14.4%, whilst the North East saw just 4% of activity.

Twenty seven percent of private equity backed manufacturing deals were in the South East, however this fell from 33.7% the year before.

This research is based on data sourced from Experian Corpfin’s proprietary M&A deals database.