Manchester's Advisory Community

Just written the annual report for Pro.Manchester, the body representing Manchester's professional advisory community.

Here it is:

In 2012 Manchester-based advisors worked on a total of 274 deals, and of the 118 transactions that had a value disclosed, the total combined deal value was £5.38bn. Whereas this represents a 33% decline in the number of deals over the 2011 figures (335 deals), it does however depict an 11% increase in the value of transactions (£4.853bn in 2011). 

If we drill down to examine deal sizes, we can see that the Small Cap segment (deals with a transaction value of less than £10m) represented the bulk of all deal activity, with 70 deals. Of the transactions where the value was disclosed, this segment saw 70 deals raise a total of £236m. In the Mid-Market range (£10-100m), 39 deals raised a total of £1.17bn and the Large Cap segment, whereas nine deals managed to raise a total of £3.975m.

 

When compared with 2011, the Small Cap segment recorded negative growth of 25% in terms of volume and 15% in terms of value over the 2011 figures. The Mid Market’s volume shrank by 42% and the value by 49% since 2011. However, in the Large Cap range (£100m transaction value), whereas the volume of deals declined by 40%, the value increased by 73% over the 2011 figure.

In terms of the types of transaction, the most popular deal type of 2012 was the plain vanilla acquisition, which represented 52% of all transactions. The actual number of acquisitions, however, fell by 10% between 2011 and 2012, from165 to 148 deals. In terms of buyout activity, whereas the number of deals declined by 8%, however, the value of these transactions increased by 72% (from £734m to £2.6bn) between 2011 and 2012. Finally, perhaps as a sign of improving economic conditions, the number of transactions arising from insolvency dropped by 32%.

In terms of industry sectors that proved to be the most popular for Manchester-based advisors, the manufacturing sector continued to be the most prominent industry in terms of deals flow, with 90 deals, raising a total of £1.38bn. However, in value terms, the most prosperous sector was Wholesale, Retail and Repair, in which 66 deals saw a combined transaction value of £2.29bn. The Support Transport and Travel Agencies sector is also worthy of mention, as here 18, 18 transactions managed to accrue a total deal value of £1.17bn.

Outside the North West region, Manchester’s advisory community was most active in the USA, working on a total of 19 deals. In value terms, however, Manchester-based advisors were well represented in Wales, where some 15 deals raised £1.58bn in transaction value. Other significant regions in which Manchester advisors were able to demonstrate their expertise include Germany, where eight deals saw a total transaction value of £556m, as well as India (4 deals, £262m) and Japan (1 deal, £152m).