Sale of Tata Steel catapults Yorkshire into buyout top spot

Yorkshire is now one of the leading regions for private equity buyouts in the first half of 2016, following the sale of a specialist division of Tata Steel.

According to findings from the Centre for Management Buyout Research, sponsored by Equistone Partners Europe and Investec, Yorkshire saw five buyouts worth £444m in the first six months of the year.

The sale of Tata Steel to Greybull Capital in June was the fourth largest transaction in the UK.

This provided a significant boost to the overall value – putting Yorkshire behind London (£4.69bn) and the North West (£449m) for the value of private equity buyouts.

Other Yorkshire transactions included the £38m sale of Barnsley-based food product manufacturer Fresh-Pak Chilled Foods and the backing of ABI Group, which manufactures caravan holiday homes in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

Steve O’Hare, partner at Equistone Partners Europe in the North of England, said: “It’s positive to see big ticket deals taking place across the region, and transactions such as Tata Steel are having a significant impact on the local economy.

“There’s also a clear trend of investors being drawn towards manufacturing assets and we’re confident that Yorkshire will continue to provide a good home for private equity in the second half of the year.”

John Clifford at Investec Bank, a new co-sponsor of CMBOR, added: “The statistics reflect a normalisation of activity for private equity. The market is cooling off, with the EU referendum one of a number of challenges currently facing deal-doers.

“This has made larger deals more difficult to complete, but we are encouraged to see the lower mid-market persevere – it highlights private equity’s ability to truly invest across all cycles.”