THE YEAR 2021 HAS SEEN BUMPER COMPANY SALES

Since January, our daily news website, www.businessinnovationmag.co.uk, has reported on more than 30 major deals across the region. These included Onecom acquiring Stonehouse-based comms business 9 Group, just three weeks after Onecom scooped up Olive Communications in High Wycombe. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed. The acquisition marked Farnham-based Onecom’s second major deal in as many months, and the fourth since leading mid-market private equity firm LDC backed the business in July 2019.

Corporate finance company FRP acquired Reading-based Spectrum Corporate Finance in a deal worth more than £9 million.

In 2020, Spectrum’s Corporate Finance team advised on 25 completed transactions with a combined deal value of more than £900 million. This included advising on the acquisition of VIPR by Tenzing Private Equity, the sale of Babble on behalf of LDC to Graphite Capital, and the sale of Reading-based Porterhouse Medical to imc group, in a deal backed by Waterland Private Equity.

Stuart Turner, the Henley-on-Thames based manufacturer of water boosting pumps and systems, bought Redditchbased pressurisation and HVAC specialist Mikrofill Systems Ltd. The transaction was supported by follow-on funding provided by Stuart Turner’s private equity backer LDC. Founded in 1906, Stuart Turner designs and manufactures water powering solutions, from domestic pumps to large water boosting systems for commercial and industrial projects.

In January, Coventry and Warwickshire solicitors Alsters Kelley acquired Stratfordbased Bonell & Co Solicitors, bringing its total number of offices to five. The firm already operates in Coventry, Nuneaton, Leamington Spa and Southam and this represents its first acquisition for 15 years. The move has resulted in Alsters Kelley becoming one of the largest solicitor’s firms in the region and will increase turnover by an anticipated 10 per cent in the first year.