The purchase of hazardous waste firm Augean by London-based Ancala Partners for £341 million topped the list of private equity deals in the 12 months to September.
The company, which has divisions in both Aberdeen and Peterhead, was bought by Eleia, a special-purpose vehicle formed by investment funds managed by Ancala Partners and Fiera Infrastructure of Canada after a successful bid.
M&A Deals on AIM in 2021
The deal helped contribute to the value of takeover and merger deals on London’s junior stock market, AIM, jumping nearly 155% in the past year, according to new research.
Augean
Yorkshire-based Augean operates across the hazardous waste management, oil and gas, nuclear and radioactive sectors. Augean’s North Sea services subsidiary is based in Aberdeen.
DBay Advisors’ £240m 75% stake in Telit Communications, which provides Internet of Things software, also made the list.
Accountancy group UHY Hacker Young Fund found firms have been looking to capitalise on a buoyant UK tech sector, with M&A deals worth £8.4 billion in the 12 months to September, up from £3.3bn on the same period last year.
Private equity and international conglomerates
Researchers said the hike in deal value was driven by private equity and international conglomerates snapping up AIM-listed tech firms which had performed strongly through the pandemic.
The total value of tech M&A deals on AIM this year rose to £2.6bn, making up nearly a third of the total value of all M&A deals on AIM.
Sumo Group and Tencent
Tech acquisitions on AIM accounted for just 7% of deals (£232m) in the previous year, researchers added.
The rise was led by the £919m takeover of video game developer Sumo Group, creator of the video game series Little Big Planet and Sonic Racing, by Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent.
The acquisition of the Sheffield-based firm, which has offices in the US, has come under
the scrutiny of a US national security panel last week.
However, Reuters reported that Sumo and Tencent are engaging with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to get clearance for the deal before the end of the year.
The acquisition of business communications software provider IMImobile by American technology conglomerate Cisco was the second most valuable acquisition for an AIM-listed technology firm at £540m.
AIM Listed Health Companies
Deals in AIM-listed health firms topped £835m while mining deals came in at £305m.
The bidding action for Augean started in May when Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partner (MSIP) made an offer worth around £300m for Augean.
Eleia entered the race with a £341m offer in August.
In September Morgan Stanley put forward an improved offer of £356m.
But with neither suitor declaring their bid final, the auction process was announced.
Augean brought the first major decommissioning project to Tayside.
It worked on the Shell Curlew dismantling project at Port of Dundee for more than a year. The company cut more than one-third of its North Sea services workforce last year.
Dan Hutson, partner at UHY Hacker Young, said AIM was putting the success of UK tech firms “in the shop window”.
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