Record year for Grant Thornton Northern deals team

Grant Thornton UK LLP's Northern Corporate Finance team has completed a record year advising on deals worth more than £620 million in 2024.

The team, led by partners Peter Terry, Matt Bryden-Smith and Jim Whittaker, believes the great results are a testament to the firm's combined regional and sector-led approach, with a significant investment in its people.

A number of new hires have joined during 2024 including life science sector specialist Abi Godfrey, who was previously with Deloitte.

Among the stand-out deals of 2024 were global heating, cooling and ventilation group Daikin's acquisition of Robert Heath Heating, the sale of Blackpool-based aggregates and earthworks hauler Fox Brothers to Stellex Capital (a complex deal that saw Fox Bros simultaneously acquiring a quarry operator), the sale of Next Energy to Certas Energy and two high profile strategic transactions with listed client, Renew Holdings.

Peter Terry said: "As reflected in many of our deals, demand from private equity (PE) and acquisitive corporates for high quality businesses in the SaaS, healthcare, FM (facilities management), energy transition and business services sectors remained robust during the year. Confidence increased as political uncertainty eased, particularly post-Budget, and inflation and interest rates began to soften.

“The north's business base is broad and diverse with many leading universities, a skilled talent pool, and long-established industries, which have proved resilient over the decades.

“We are confident in the region and in our ability to transact complex buy side and sell side transactions, supporting PE firms as well as ambitious mid-market firms to achieve their strategic goals.”

 Jim Whittaker said: "The outlook is more positive than it was this time 12 months ago, and we are seeing opportunities across a broadening range of sectors including those you would expect such as health-tech and software, but there are also businesses in certain niche consumer-facing sectors, such as travel seeing renewed interest.”

Matt Bryden-Smith, added: “Following our investment in the team during 2024, we believe we are very well placed to continue to perform well in the year ahead and out-perform the market.”