Yorkshire and Humber led the North when it came to bolt-on acquisitions to build businesses, new research has found.
A total of 37 transactions completed in 2021, more than double 2019鈥檚 levels.
It came in well above the North West (24) and North East 14, analysis from corporate finance firm Rickitt Mitchell revealed.
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The work, conducted in partnership with Experian Market iQ, found completions significantly higher than 2020鈥檚 25 and way beyond the 18 of the previous year. Covid and political uncertainty around the shape of a Brexit deal had dominated.
The deals focus on private equity backed businesses.
Underlining the region鈥檚 strong performance, Leeds was the third busiest acquisition target city in the 海角视频 with eight deals completed, and Sheffield came in joint-sixth place with five.
Neil Mitchell, partner at Rickitt Mitchell, said: 鈥淲hilst there has been a general upward trend in the number of private equity acquisitions across the 海角视频 in 2021, Yorkshire has been one of the most active regions and ranks fourth nationally.
鈥淎lthough Leeds was the most targeted city for acquisitions in the region, Sheffield also saw an influx of activity, with PE-backed businesses such as Careerpass Network, Fortus Group Holdings and Lavatech each targeted organisations in the city region.鈥
Deals completed across the year include two acquisitions by IRIS Software Group, a provider of mission-critical software and services - having taken Every in Leeds and Dataplan in Grimsby; Hessle-based Quickline Communications鈥 purchase of a majority stake in Leeds鈥 Boundless Networks Ltd, a provider of wireless internet services; an acquisition of several veterinary practices by Independent Vetcare, one of the largest groups in the 海角视频.
Analysing the Buy and Build data nationally, 578 deals completed across the 海角视频 in 2021, up 56 per cent on 2020 (370) and 109 per cent on 2019 (276).
Overall deal value in the 海角视频 was relatively consistent between 2019 (拢1.37 billion) and 2020 (拢1.26 billion) - then leaped significantly in 2021 up to 拢4.56 billion.
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