Hill Dickinson ranked second most active advisor in Experian deals table

Hill Dickinson has achieved second in the overall rankings of the North West regions most active advisers by deal volume, with 46 successfully completed deals in total in 2016.

The newly published Experian statistics rank Hill Dickinson’s activity of 46 deals in the North West Region as just behind Gateley in the period with 49 deals and ahead of DWF and Brabners with 44 deals respectively.

According to the 2016 Experian M&A Review, there were 832 deals announced for the year in the North West region, an increase of 5.6% on 2015’s figure.

Deal numbers in total surpassed the 800 mark in the region for the first time, after last coming close to that total just before the start of the global financial crisis in 2007. Deal activity in 2016 was said to be worth £13.6bn, 30.1% more than the £10.4bn figure announced in 2015.

Craig Scott, national head of the corporate team at Hill Dickinson, said: “This is a fantastic result and reflects what has been a very active and successful period of deal activity for our North West corporate teams in Liverpool and Manchester.

“Despite a period of slight uncertainty in the market immediately after the Brexit result, our deal activity for our clients has remained extremely high throughout 2016 across the region, as demonstrated by these results and pipeline presently appears to remain strong moving into 2017.   As a team we have been involved in a number of significant transactions throughout 2016 including the management buyout of ITC Luxury Travel, backed by private equity firm NorthEdge Capital, the £36M sale of Carrs Flour Mills by Carrs Group Plc to Whitworth Holdings and the acquisition of P2P Mailing by The Delivery Group backed by Next Wave Partners.”

Jane Turner, research manager at Experian MarketIQ, said: “After the record highs of 2015, the bulk of transactions this year were around the small to mid-market range.

“However, total recorded value still sat well above the ten-year average – boosted by a significant upturn in inward investment, as foreign bidders took advantage of favourable exchange rates to snap up British assets.”