Sale of Newcastle rail and bus giant Go Ahead
The transport group was sold to a joint venture of two overseas operators in a deal valuing the business at £669m; the deal was approved at a general meeting held by the firm in August
The consortium of Kinetic TCo Pty Ltd - Australia and New Zealand’s largest bus network - and Spanish transport firm Globalvia Inversiones S.A.U paid 1,550 pence per share - and the purchasers even raised their bid by £22m, despite rivals Kelsian dropping out of the running.
Hospitality firm The Inn Collection Group is sold to a new company
The rapidly-growing company, which moved its head office from Alnwick to Newcastle during the year, was sold by Alchemy Partners to a new firm owned by the Harris family in conjunction with Kings Park Capital. The deal took the pubs-with-rooms company back under Kings Park Capital ownership for a second time, as the London private equity manager was the main backer of the Northumberland group for five years until 2018, when it was sold to Alchemy.
Since the deal the pubs-with-rooms business also added a further four sites, taking its portfolio to 35 as it expanded further into the North West as well as into North Wales.
Read more: North East inward investment boss trails "big and exciting" projects in 2023
UK Land Estates is bought for £425m
GIC, which managers Singapore’s foreign reserves, purchased UK Land Estates in July in a highly significant property deal for the region.
It means GIC, which owns property across the globe, will have a majority stake in the North East portfolio which includes Team Valley, Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate and Teesside Estate as well as other locations.
GIC replaces UK Land Estates’ former US-based joint venture partners Northwood, which owned a stake in the North East property portfolio since 2014.
Stockton firm Mobile Mini is sold by its American owners
Previous owners WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings, which wanted to concentrate on its North American market, sold the business to Modulaire Group, which provides a range of services and infrastructure.
The new owner said the move will strengthen its UK presence, bringing on board Mobile Mini’s 16 branches and 375 staff. The £335m deal acquisition is subject to UK regulatory approval and is expected to complete in early 2023.
Busy year for chip maker Pragmatic Semiconductor
The firm first announced plans for a £68m new factory at the Wavin pipeworks at Meadowfield. Months later the County Durham company, which operates a Sedgefield NETPark facility and has expanded its Cambridge base, landed £28.2m in funding from a range of institutional investors.
The latest investment has broken its Series C funding round target by more than half, totalling £100.8m - money it will use to accelerate the plans which involve the redevelopment of the site to include a 175,000 sq ft factory where it will make its flexible integrated circuits intended to replace mainstream silicon chips.
Greggs moves into fashion
Newcastle bakery giant Greggs achieved something of a retail masterstroke when it formed a partnership with Primark.
The two firms linked up to create three limited edition fashion collections over the course of the year, starting with a small, initial collection at the start of the year which led to some items cropping up on eBay at vastly-inflated asking prices. A summer festival-themed collection was followed by a winter collection, featuring sausage roll-festooned blankets and jumpers.
Maritime merger
Approval was given to merging shipping and marine insurer North P&I with fellow mutual Standard Club – a move set to create one of the world’s largest maritime insurance groups.
Separate member meetings resoundingly backed plans for Newcastle-based North and London-based Standard Club to join to create NorthStandard with a joint premium income of £612m ($800m) and assets of £1.5bn ($2bn). North P&I CEO Paul Jennings said he was very confident the merger would happen and it is expected to be completed by next February.
Biotech deal
Tyneside biotech company Iksuda Therapeutics signed a deal potentially worth £730m to develop a Korean pharmaceutical firm’s cancer treatment drug.
The firm, based at Biosphere at Newcastle Helix, signed a licence and commercialisation agreement with LegoChem Biosciences (LCB) which will see the Daejeon-based company tap into the Tyneside firm’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology. ADCs target tumour cells and poisons them and Iksuda’s ADC programmes target tumours that currently have limited treatment options and high-relapse rates. Iksuda gets exclusive rights to develop and market LCB’s cancer treatment drug in most countries, while LCB will keep the rights in China and Korea.
Reece Group sale
Engineering firm Reece Group’s two central defence firms were acquired in a multimillion-pound deal by global defence giant Rafael.
The group, based at the Armstrong Works on Newcastle’s Scotswood Road, confirmed the sale of Pearson Engineering and Responsive Engineering for an undisclosed sum to defence contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The two Tyneside companies will continue to operate under their own brands and serve their existing markets, but new owners Rafael said the deal will lead to a “significant increase in the number of jobs in Newcastle.”
Vertu’s largest sale
Gateshead motor retailer Vertu added 28 sales outlets to its portfolio after snapping up Helston Garages Group Limited, a premium car company in the south west. in a £120m deal - the largest in the Tyneside firm’s history.
The company welcomed Ferrari and Volvo into the group following the acquisition of the £499m turnover family firm. Cornwall-based Helston has been a family-run business for more than 60 years, building up a network of quality dealerships across Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, operating under brands including Westerly, Carrs and Truscotts - and at an enterprise value of £120.1m the deal is represents 6.8 times the Ebitda of the acquired dealerships.
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