Private Equity Accounts for Just 14% Of Regional Deals In

Deal activity involving Yorkshire-based manufacturing firms increased for the third consecutive quarter according to a new report.

According to the latest Experian data and analysis from law firm, Irwin Mitchell, Yorkshire manufacturers were the target of 22 deals during the second quarter of 2014. The figure takes the total number for the year so far to 41 – slightly higher than the 38 deals in the first half of 2013.

To further demonstrate the current strength of the sector, Irwin Mitchell’s report highlights that the number of manufacturing deals in the most recent quarter has only been exceeded on four occasions in the last six years.

The Yorkshire region’s share of manufacturing M&A activity across England increased from 10.3% in Q1 to 11.7%.This was up from 7.9% during the previous year and higher than all other regions in the UK apart from the South East, the North West and East Anglia. The regional percentage during the whole of 2013 was 10.4%.

The report also highlighted a national fall in the percentage of manufacturing deals which were private equity backed. Across the UK in the second quarter of 2014, the figure stood at 16% whilst in 2013, 28.5% of manufacturing M&A was backed by PE.

So far in 2014, 14.6% of manufacturing deals in Yorkshire were private equity-backed whilst last year the figure was much higher at 26.3%.

Andrea Cropley, Partner and Head of Irwin Mitchell’s Corporate team in the North of England said:

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