Future to take SheerLuxe stateside after £40m acquisition and other eye catching deals
Our weekly free round up of key deals and major moves in the Rainmakers world
Hello Rainmakers,
Plenty of deals around the whole country this week. All of the ones we’ve selected here are symptomatic of the volatile uncertain world around us, be it changing consumer habits, climate change and the pace of technology disruption.
A reminder too that we’ve got a special discount for you for our Rainmakers Summit.
This is free to all who have signed up, however Rainmakers subscribers get two unique pieces a week, and also full access to our back catalogue of investigations, scoops, and insights, including updates from The Secret Investor, interviews with entrepreneurs, and the leaders from VC and PE investors like Endless, and River Capital, Foresight, Mercia, Puma and LDC.
Bath-based media group Future is paying £40m for fashion publisher SheerLuxe and has big plans to launch it in the US.
The deal values the business at 7.8x EBITDA, with potential earn-outs taking the total to £80m if SheerLuxe keeps its momentum going. The publisher’s hit 32% organic revenue growth since 2023, turning over £12.6m with a tidy 40% margin.
Future already runs Marie Claire and Who What Wear among its 175 specialist brands. It reckons SheerLuxe’s Gen Z audience and social strength will give its fashion portfolio a shot in the arm – but the real opportunity is taking a proven UK platform across the Atlantic with Future’s commercial muscle behind it.
Founded by Georgie Coleridge Cole in 2007, SheerLuxe reaches 6m people across its website, social channels, emails, YouTube and podcasts, without being dependent on Google for traffic.
Not a bad trick when search volatility is keeping most publishers awake at night.
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Power generator Drax is acquiring Edinburgh-headquartered asset optimisation business Flexitricity for £36m from infrastructure investor Quinbrook, to expand its flexible generation and battery storage portfolio.
Founded in 2004, Flexitricity provides optimisation and route-to-market services for flexible energy assets. Its proprietary platform manages more than 900MW of operational assets, including battery systems, gas peaking plants and demand-side response.
Drax said the transaction is expected to generate returns “significantly in excess” of its weighted average cost of capital.
https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/scotland/news/1471-drax-set-to-acquire-flexitricity-in-36m-deal
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NCC finally split this week. The Manchester-based business has grown with two elements with remarkably little that complements either half. The software escrow business has been bought by TDR Capital, who seem to have a remarkable appetite for acquisitions, despite their rough experiences with Asda and EuroGarages, where they have juggled debt negotiations.
The added spice in this drama is the part played by activist investor Kelso, closely associated with the core team at Zeus Capital. Since it was founded in November 2022 with the backing of over 65 individuals (including Luke Johnson, Nigel Wray and Umar Kamani) they’ve been a thorn in the side of THG and have taken positions in retailer The Works, Saga, Angling Direct and NCC Group.
On this particular deal Kelso originally invested into NCC in October 2023, with further investments made during 2024 and remains one of Kelso’s largest holdings, with 2 million shares held at an average rice of 133.7p. In April 2024, Kelso highlighted the potential value uplift that could be achieved if NCC considered separating cyber security and Escode.
Kelso believes that the disposal is “another example of the extent to which many companies listed on the UK stock market are undervalued,” which frankly, is fighting talk.
Fresh from the success here, and pleased that the pressure they brought to bear in THG splitting off its Ingenuity arm, where they look next will be fascinating.
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Sighs of relief all round as news was confirmed yesterday that a deal has been struck to save North Yorkshire’s Black Sheep Brewery. The established Masham-based brewery warned last month it was searching for new investment after its owner, Keystone Brewing Group, posted a notice of intention to appoint an administrator. In a deal which has safeguarded 145 jobs, the brewery has now been acquired by The Great British Drinks Company for about £4.5m. This newly formed venture is backed by the family entrepreneurs behind Paramount Retail Group.
A future investment plan worth more than £2m will be put into action to take Black Sheep back to growth. Ravi Sharma, co-founder of the Great British Drinks Company, emphasised that this rescue operation has been about more than cold, hard business calculations, commenting: “This isn’t just a restoration deal, it’s about restoring pride to Yorkshire. The region has a proud brewing heritage, and we could not stand by and let that be lost.”
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Charles Bentley & Son has made its mark by snapping up MarXman, bringing the Dragons’ Den-famous chalk marking tool fully in-house.
The tool brand shot to fame in 2016 after landing investment from Deborah Meaden on BBC’s Dragons’ Den - chalking up offers from all five Dragons in the process.
Since 2019, Charles Bentley & Son has been manufacturing and selling MarXman under licence from its Loughborough base.
In that time, the firm has drawn some bold lines through the growth charts, increasing sales fivefold, rolling the product out across Europe, North America and Australia, and helping turn MarXman into a globally recognised name in marking tools.
The acquisition gives Charles Bentley & Son full control of manufacturing, sales and brand direction - no more working between the lines.
Next on the drawing board is a strategic rebrand, alongside new product development aimed at both trade professionals and DIYers.
In short: the licence has been erased, the ownership line is permanent - and Charles Bentley & Son is ready to chalk up the next chapter.
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Bridges have officially been crossed, and a few new foundations laid, after Coventry-based consultancy Bridges Pound was snapped up by Northern Ireland firm AM Consulting Engineers.
The deal doubles the combined headcount to around 40 and bolts Bridges Pound’s four decades of civil engineering know-how onto AM Consulting Engineers’ fast-growing operation.
It also gives the Belfast-based firm firmer footing across Great Britain, while stretching the group’s reach across GB, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
For Bridges Pound, it’s less about burning bridges and more about building bigger ones, bringing its long track record in infrastructure, education and regeneration projects into a wider group.
For AM Consulting Engineers, it’s another structural upgrade, strengthening its civil, structural and geotechnical capabilities as it continues to scale.
One merger, stronger foundations, and a lot more ground to cover.
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The Rainmakers Summit on the 25th of March will feature a debate on the future of professional services as partners consider their next strategic options.
Featuring leaders of businesses who have chosen very different paths, and an investor in one of the consolidators driving the change across the sector, the debate will throw an intense focus on the stark choices that professional services firms face.
Making the case for independence will be Helen Clayton, managing partner at accountancy firm PM&M.
Telling the story about their respective lives on the public markets will be Rakesh Shaunak, CEO of MHA, and James Sheridan, head of M&A at Knights PLC.
Explaining the investment decision behind aggregation will be Matt Nicholson, investment lead at Tenzing, the private equity backer of accountancy consolidator DJH.
As a thank you for being part of our Rainmakers community, we are pleased to offer an exclusive 20% discount for the upcoming Rainmakers Summit on March 25th.
This is a unique opportunity to engage with industry leaders, gain insights, and connect with like-minded professionals.
As you can see the agenda features keynote speakers and exclusive sessions hearing from The Beauty Tech Group, Northern Gritstone, Rem3dy Health & GM Pension Fund. With some more details below…
Event details & registration:
https://www.rainmakerssummit.co.uk/
Discount code: RAINMAKER20
Please note that this offer is available for a limited time. We encourage you to secure your place at your earliest convenience.
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Duncan Johnson, founder and chief executive of Northern Gritstone will also speak at the Rainmakers Summit.
The investment veteran, who started out in turnaround, has shaped Northern Gritstone to be a chunky life sciences and deeptech investment firm that’s now raised £362 million. The fund has close relationships with the research universities in the North, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool.
The chief executive of Northern Gritstone looks and sounds like a man having the time of his life in an interview with TheBusinessDesk.com last year, where he explained how he had completed a fresh £50 million raise from leading institutional investors including £35m from LGPS, the collective asset pool for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds, alongside £15 million from new investors Fulcrum Asset Management and Aviva.
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The Beauty Tech Group has announced this month that it has smashed its targets for the current financial year, reporting surging revenues for the year ended 31 December 2025 following its IPO in October 2025.
CEO Laurence Newman will be speaking at Rainmakers Summit this March, where he will tell the extraordinary, behind-the-scenes story of the company’s IPO and rapid post-listing growth.
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