A leading firm of accountants has revealed it had nearly 50 merger and acquisition deals in the past 12 months worth more than £300million.
Anderson Anderson and Brown’s Corporate Finance Division said 2013 was a “fantastic year” as the 25% increase in business helped them remain one of Scotland’s top dealmakers.
Their disposal mandates in the oilfield services sector last year included the sale of Enovate Systems to Aker Solutions, the sale of K&L Ross to Red Wing, the disposal of Gibb Tools to Clarkson plc, the sale of EPC Offshore to Costain Group and the disposal of a majority stake in C.R. Encapsulation to FrontRow Energy Partners.
The team continues to be involved in a significant number of deals in other industry sectors, including most notably in 2013 the property, construction and support services sectors.
Transactions completed last year included; the disposal of Vacman Cleaning to VPS, the disposal of Plant Shifters to GCSS and several debt and mezzanine fund-raising projects for house builders and property developers.
Corporate finance partner, Douglas Martin, said: “Our deal figures reflect that 2013 was a good year for M&A activity in the UK oilfield services sector and we anticipate this to continue for the foreseeable future with strong interest globally from both trade players and private equity.”
He added that the firm was “looking forward to bringing many more deals to fruition during 2014”.
AAB also supported a number of clients in fund-raising and investment activities in the oilfield services sector including the acquisition of a majority stake in Oteac by Lonsdale Capital Partners, the raising of growth capital from Bank of Scotland by Survivex, the investment in Petrotechnics by Business Growth Fund and the raising of further growth capital from Maven and RBS by Fletcher Shipping.
The Press and Journal’s Mergers and Acquisitions supplement will be out on February 17.