EY advises on £500 million deals in M&A surge

A surge in mergers and acquisitions activity saw professional services firm EY advise on deals worth more than £500 million across the North of England in the final quarter of 2024.

The firm enjoyed a “particularly strong period” by acting on eight transactions, with many concentrated in the technology and energy sectors. 

Among them, EY advised Oakley Capital on its investment in cybersecurity company Assured Data Protection, offering corporate finance advice, financial and tax due diligence, technical due diligence, tax structuring and sale and purchase agreement advisory.

EY also worked with LMF Energy Services as it secured backing from private equity group Soho Square Capital, while EY dealmakers in Yorkshire supported Newcastle-based Aspire Technology Group in acquiring services from IT provider Cloud CoCo Limited.

Other deals included advising private equity firm ECI on its investment in software provider CMap, supporting the sale of Liberty to Wates Group, as well as assisting Moneypenny on refinancing with Macquarie. 

EY is now looking forward to “further deals activity” in 2025, leveraging its sector expertise and regional presence to support businesses in “achieving their objectives”.

Ben Coggin, partner (transaction services) at EY in Yorkshire, said: “The final quarter of 2024 was a particularly strong period for our deals teams in the North of England, and we were delighted to support a variety of businesses on significant transactions within both the technology and energy sectors – two buoyant sectors in which we expect to see further deals activity in 2025. 

“Our forward-looking deals pipeline is strong, and we look forward with optimism to supporting our clients in achieving their objectives through further strategic transactions as the year progresses.”

Mark Clephan, UK corporate finance leader and North M&A partner at EY, added: “We had a strong second half of 2024, which saw our regional business collaborating with our sector experts across EY to support clients.

“Our recent deal completions represent our ambition and our intent to continue supporting private and regional businesses with their strategic transactions.”

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