The business world may be suffering from Brexit uncertainty as we row over a potential No Deal - but there are still plenty of deals being done across Britain.
We’ve rounded up some of the most interesting deals that have been covered so far by BusinessLive’s network of business reporters and editors across the country.
From a £500m-plus takeover battle for an iconic communications firm to investment in a technology ‘Unicorn’, our team has covered sales, takeovers and deals of all shapes and sizes.
Deals this year have included ones in historically important sectors such as the Stoke tile industry and the fishing legacy of the Humber. And the deals here also cover sectors from traffic management to airlines and shopping centres.
We'll keep covering deals and business finance here on BusinessLive - so stay in touch.
£563m offer for Hull telecoms firm
News broke last month that Hull internet provider KCOM looks set to be bought in a deal worth more than £500m - and that deal took another twist this week.
The broadband giant, which recently completed its Lightstream rollout across the city, had received the £504m offer from Humber Bidco Ltd – a subsidiary of the Liverpool-based Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
But last week, KCOM directors instead recommended a rival £563m takeover offer from a subsidiary of infrastructure giant .
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Patrick De Smedt, interim non-executive chairman of KCOM, said: “The Board of KCOM is pleased to recommend MEIF 6 Fibre’s cash offer for KCOM which represents an increase of 11 pence to the USS Offer of 97 pence per KCOM share and a 49% premium to the undisturbed share price on April 23, 2019.
"This offer provides our shareholders with even greater value in cash for their shares, as well as providing KCOM with a strong partner as we work to maintain, build and enhance our offering and position.”
KCOM provides broadband and telephone services to 140,000 customers and businesses in the region.
First launched in 1904 as the Hull Telephone Department, it became Kingston Communications in 1987 when Hull City Council announced plans for the company to be formed.
It was renamed to KCOM in 2007, when the council sold its remaining stake in the business.
Kuwaiti firm buys into city’s biggest shopping centre
Perhaps the most significant - and certainly by far the largest - deal so far in Derby this year has involved the city’s main shopping centre.
In April, it was announced that Kuwaiti-backed investment firm Cale Street Investments had bought half of the Intu Derby shopping centre in a deal worth more than £186 million.
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Previous attempts by Intu Properties to sell the centre - along with others in its portfolio - had fallen through.
But as a result of the deal with Cale Street, the two companies formed a 50/50 joint venture for the centre, which attracts around 22 million people a year and is home to more than 200 stores, including big names such as M&S, Debenhams, Next, H&M, Sainsbury’s, Zara, Hollywood Bowl and Showcase Cinema de Lux.
It was an important deal for the shopping centre - the net proceeds of which are being used to pay off some of Intu Properties’ debts.
At the time, Matthew Roberts, chief executive designate at Intu Properties, said: “In what is a challenging investment market, this innovative transaction, which is in line with the December 2018 valuation, shows Intu is delivering on its strategy of reducing loan to value through disposals and part-disposals.”
Tax office deal boost for Nottingham
HMRC chose Nottingham as the home for its final regional centre, bringing in staff from its offices in the city, Leicester and Lincoln into one venue.
The deal was agreed in 2018 and signalled the start of the city’s Unity Square development, a 13-storey, Grade A office development next to the city’s train station.
The revenue signed a 25-year lease on the building and will bring an estimated 4,000 members of staff to the area when it is completed in 2021.
The deal itself was a boost for Nottingham, but it is the wider impact which has been hailed by business leaders.
Steven Boyd, estates director at HMRC, said: "We are certainly committed to being not just a passive employer but to play a real role in the community.
"We want to do that and if that helps the city then that is fantastic."
At the ground-breaking of the scheme in March, Rachel Wood, managing director of Sladen Estates, one of the groups that brought the project forward, added: "It has taken two years to bring forward this phase and we have outline planning permission for phase two (a second proposed office block next to Unity Square), so we are now turning our eyes to that.
"What Unity Square has done is kick started that whole southern gateway project (to regnerate the southern entrance to Nottingham), there are lots of things going on which is fantastic so we are now looking at that second phase and we can see there is going to be a big ripple effect."
海角视频 ‘unicorn’ wins Japanese investment
Bristol -based energy supplier Ovo secured significant investment from Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation in May.
The company gave away a 20% minority stake in return for a cash injection of £200million.
The deal values Ovo at around £1billion, making the business a 海角视频 ‘unicorn’.
Ovo’s funds will be used to accelerate the development of its intelligent energy technologies unit and to expand into new markets.
Ovo was founded by chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick in 2009 to disrupt the 海角视频 energy market with cheaper and greener energy.
The business has grown rapidly over the past decade to become the largest 海角视频 independent energy supplier with over 1.5million customers.
The firm has invested heavily in new technologies, including energy storage and electric vehicle charging, and launched the world’s first domestic vehicle-to-grid charger for electric cars last year.
Mr Fitzpatrick said: “Transitioning away from fossil fuels is the biggest challenge we face in the 21st century.
“The costs of EVs, battery storage and wind and solar power have fallen dramatically in recent years, but it’s becoming increasingly complex to integrate them onto the grid.
“To succeed, we will need to develop new technology and redesign the energy system around the customer.
“We want to be at the forefront of that global, tech-enabled transition to a zero carbon energy system. This investment from Mitsubishi Corporation will help us get there.”
Law firm’s East Midlands acquisition spree
Knights law firm bought Leicestershire’s Cummins Solicitors earlier this year - its second local acquisition in a matter of months.
The listed law firm bought the Enderby employment specialist from founder Michael Cummins in a deal worth almost £1.6million.
It came just three months after Knights bought Leicester’s biggest independent law firm Spearing Waite in a deal that was worth up to £8.5million.
The company has a record of acquiring regional law firms in what it calls “attractive locations”, and now has offices in Chester, Derby, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Manchester, Oxford and Wilmslow, as well as in Gloucester and Leicester.
The Spearing Waite takeover was not seamless, with around 10 partners leaving the business and joining other local firms such as Howes Percival, BHW, Gateley and Fraser Brown.
Knights, which expects revenue for its current year to be no less than £52.4million, went on to buy Oxfordshire law firm BrookStreet des Roches in April.
Firm’s east London deal hailed as regeneration success
The team that turned a former ICI site in Runcorn into a thriving business hub has been praised for repeating its success and creating more “real jobs” in east London.
SOG’s work has been hailed as an example of how other old industrial sites throughout Britain can be transformed.
SOG took over the HQ complex in Runcorn in 2000 and have turned it into a business and science park that is home to dozens of businesses and where more than 2,000 people now work. In 2014 SOG and its MD John Lewis took its ‘Fusion’ regeneration model to London, where it turned part of the former Sanofi pharmaceutical site into the Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park.
SOG sold Londoneast-uk to a company owned by Barking and Dagenham Council and held an event in Dagenham to celebrate its success. SOG had originally planned to take 10 years to complete its Dagenham work but finished in five. Londoneast-uk is now home to 42 small firms employing 500 people.
The park was officially handed over with speeches from Alastair Campbell and former transport minister Steven Norris.
Liverpool-born Mr Norris said: “It’s an enormous achievement and never to be under-estimated, because John proved a concept in Runcorn that most people would have laughed at.”
On Friday, SOG boss John Lewis was awarded an MBE for services to business in Liverpool.
Tile firm’s deal makes it biggest firm of its kind
Growing tile retailer Tile Mountain has taken over a rival tile company - making it the largest, privately-owned retailer of its kind in the 海角视频.
The firm, which is based in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, was founded in 2013 by former Topps Tiles directors Mo Iqbal and Jeremy Harris.
Its latest acquisition has seen it acquire Kettering-based Walls and Floors, a company which employs nearly 200 people and boasts an annual turnover in excess of £30 million.
The deal - which forms part of Tile Mountain's ambitious expansion strategy has also seen the company take ownership of Walls and Floors' retail, distribution and specification divisions.
Mo Iqbal said: "Overs the years, Walls and Floors has developed into one of the major players in the 海角视频 tiling industry and I am excited about leading the company into the next phase of its growth."
Tile Mountain bosses have since revealed that they aim to develop both companies further, by making use of Walls and Floors' expertise and Tile Mountain's IT resource, to bolster the performance of the overall Tile Mountain brand.
Deal shows Humber fishing legacy remains strong
Grimsby is renowned for providing the 海角视频 retail sector’s fresh and frozen fish, and while there has been a transformative shift from trawlers to offshore wind vessels in the port, a processing legacy remains, and thrives.
May saw the town’s exemplar, Flatfish, bought out in a multi-million pound deal by a Japanese giant already present in the regional super cluster.
Nissui’s European arm has swooped for a 75 per cent stake in the 40 year old business, founded by current chief executive and major shareholder Steven Stansfield as a pontoon stall.
It had bought out Sealord from its New Zealand owner in March 2017, taking on the huge site in nearby Caistor, Lincolnshire, and separate smoking facilities on Grimsby Docks.
Flatfish has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Sealord team, with both having supplied high end retailer Waitrose. It has recently won significantly more work with the supermarket, which enjoys a strong overtrade in seafood.
On completion of the undisclosed deal, £12.7 million turnover Flatfish welcomed three Japanese nationals to its board - Nissui Europe’s Holland-based chief executive Terutaka Kuraishi, a former Sealord employee; Ken Yokoi, also a director at Caistor Seafoods Ltd, and Hisami Sakai. They joined Mr Stansfield, brother Richard and son Reece at the top table, as well as French national Daniel Gallou and Peter Williams.
Flatfish has been named as Fish Processor of the Year twice in the past three years, with heavy investment in both people and technology praised. It was named as one of the 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain in 2016 by the London Stock Exchange.
80-year-old family firm sold for £415m
Property group Mucklow, which has been under the control of the same family since its foundation more than 80 years ago, was acquired by London-based investors for £415million.
Halesowen -based A&J Mucklow Group, to give it its full name, was launched in 1933 by Albert Mucklow and Jothan Mucklow, the great uncle and grandfather respectively of current chief executive and chairman Rupert Mucklow.
The company, which has been listed on the stock exchange since 1962, specialises in the investment, acquisition and disposal of properties while its London-based purchaser focuses on retailer-led distribution and out of town units.
The combined group is expected to have property assets worth £2.3bn in the Midlands and South East and total rental income of £115.8m.
The deal will eventually see Mr Mucklow, aged 56, leave the business and a succession plan is now up and running to find his successor.
At the time of the huge buyout deal, Mr Mucklow said he was confident LondonMetric was the right home for the company.
"LondonMetric has a complementary portfolio which mirrors Mucklow's focus on high-quality, income-producing properties and the LondonMetric management team has the necessary expertise to build on the success that Mucklow has achieved," he said.
Airline sale ‘will save jobs and vital air links’
The sale of Exeter -based airline Flybe to Connect Airways has been hailed as a saviour for jobs and much needed air transport links to the regions.
The consortium, which includes Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic brand, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital, completed the £2.8million deal in March as Flybe was near collapse amid rising fuel costs and a competitive market alongside budget carriers among other pressures.
Shareholders back in March agreed to walk away with just 1p per share but had been warned if they voted against the sale, they could end up with nothing.
There has been much speculation about what the sale could mean for staff and the routes operated by the airline from bases including Exeter, Cardiff, Doncaster and Norwich.
In April, the airline announced an intention to close its Cardiff and Doncaster bases putting around 90 pilot and crew roles at risk of redundancy.
It said that it planned to hand back its Embraer 195 jets, currently on lease, and instead concentrate on running a fleet of lower capacity Q400 turboprop craft for domestic and European routes.
And on May 28, Chief Executive Christine Ourmières-Widener announced that she will step down from her £400,000 a year post on July 15. She had been with the airline for two years, overseeing a turbulent time beset by heavy losses for the businesses and its eventual sale to Connect Airways.
She told staff: “Together, we have been able to secure the jobs of our loyal Flybe employees with the sale to Connect Airways and provide our customers and the 海角视频 with the vital transport and travel infrastructure they rely on, while preparing Flybe for a bright future under its new ownership.”
The classified Coventry factory that makes armour for the military
It’s the Coventry defence company that has come through challenging times but thanks to a recent acquisition is very much on the up - and it is also saving lives around the world in more ways than one.
NP Aerospace is based in a fairly unassuming manufacturing facility that looks like any other factory on the Foleshill Road.
Not long ago the future was not looking bright as Morgan Advanced Materials - Composites & Defence Systems (as it was then), announced redundancy consultations and said it would be closing its Foleshill Road site.
However Morgan was jointly acquired by the Canadian PFN Group of Companies and one of the senior management team, James Kempston, and has returned to its former name NP Aerospace.
And things are looking up. The company recently announced a $33 million combat helmet contract with Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).
NP Aerospace is at the forefront of protecting people in the military all over the world.
It makes helmets, body armour, shields, the protective suits worn by bomb disposal officers and vehicle armour.
It supplies the 海角视频 Ministry of Defence and other NATO allies and has now made more than a million combat helmets for military use.
NP Aerospace has integrated and supported over 2,000 military vehicles, including more than 700 of the 海角视频 MoD’s Cougar fleet of vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Mr Kempston said: “The security and defence markets are seeing increased demand in terms of exports, innovation and technology.
“NP Aerospace is ideally placed to introduce ballistic armour innovation that ensures the highest level of protection and mobility for military and law enforcement personnel whilst maintaining cost efficiency.
“We have a long history in the materials manufacturing industry having started life as part of the Courtaulds Group in 1926.
“Our new ownership structure enhances our overall business agility and will strengthen our global export position as we continue to invest in R&D. I am personally very excited to be driving the next phase of our business growth.”
Investment powered growth at concert traffic control firm
Providing traffic systems at big gigs for the likes of the Spice Girls and Bruce Springsteen has proved to be a lucrative enterprise for Total Resources.
The Boldon, South Tyneside, business helps divert and control traffic across the North East and has seen turnover soar at a local level thanks to deals to provide solutions at major concerts for a huge number of stars, including Rihanna, Take That and the new Spice Girls tour, all at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.
Over the next 18 months the firm welcome around 100 new employees on the back of expansion triggered by £8m in investment from Mercia Fund Managers.
The firm, winner of the fastest growing small business award at the North East Fastest 50 event 2018, is set to open a number of new bases after Mercia, which provides both equity and debt finance to small businesses based in the 海角视频 regions, took a majority stake in the business.
Co-founder and managing director Les Thompson said: “The Mercia Fund Manager buyout is the largest transaction they have ever done – that’s not bad for a small business from the North East.”
The company started life four years ago when Mr Thompson acquired the assets of Lincolnshire-based Traffic Control and Management, which had entered liquidation. On moving the firm to the North East, the firm expanded rapidly and now employs around 140 people.
Caffe Nero acquires majority stake in Coffee#1
Brewing to hospitality venture SA Brain & Co has sold a majority stake in its Coffee#1 business to Caffe Nero Group.
The deal sees Caffe Nero, the largest independent coffee house group in Europe, taking a 70% equity stake.
Family-owned SA Brain will maintain a 30% ownership position with its chairman, John Rhys, sitting on the board of a new joint venture company.
The exact value of the multi-million pound deal has not been disclosed, but the cash injection will allow Cardiff-based SA Brain to invest back into its business, including its freehold pub estate and new brewery operation.
The deal will see Caffe Nero continuing to build on Coffee#1's expansion plans.
Coffee#1 currently has 92 outlets across Wales the Midlands and the south of England. It generates revenues of around £30m.
It latest business plan is based on opening around 10 new venues a year, which could now be accelerated with Caffe Nero's backing.
The Coffee#1 brand will be maintained by Caffe Nero, with the business operating as a stand alone venture.
Caffe Nero's other stand alone trading brands include Harris+Hoole and Aroma.
Caffè Nero Group said its majority stake acquisition supported its strategy of opening a "new store somewhere in the world every four days."
The group now has over 750 stores in the 海角视频, and a total of over 1,000 stores internationally across 10 countries.
Founder and group chief executive, Gerry Ford, said: "We are delighted to welcome Coffee#1 into the Caffè Nero family.
"It is a fantastic brand with an emphasis on great coffee and service combined with a local community-based feel which matches perfectly the ethos of the Caffè Nero Group.
"Coffee#1 will continue to operate regionally and grow alongside the Caffè Nero brand."
Chairman of SA Brain, John Rhys, said: “I am proud of what we have achieved in growing Coffee#1 to 92 stores since we acquired the business seven years ago.
"I would like to thank our employees and everyone involved for making it such a resounding success.
"The board has resolved that now is the time to join-up with a major player in the coffee market to take it forward to the next stage of its development.
"As ongoing significant shareholders in the business, we look forward to seeing Coffee#1 continue to grow and prosper within the Caffè Nero family over the coming years.”
Reporting by the BusinessLive team - Alistair Houghton, Charlotte Turner, Chris Pyke, Coreena Ford, David Laister, Enda Mullen, Graeme Whitfield, Hannah Baker, Hannah Finch, Jonathon Manning, Laura James, Matthew Bunn, Owen Hughes, Phil Winter, Robin Johnson, Shelina Begum, Sion Barry, Tamlyn Jones, Tom Pegden, Tom Houghton, William Telford
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