The fibre providers and the great consolidation going on under our feet
Our weekly free round up of key deals and major moves in the Rainmakers world
Hello Rainmakers,
If you’re looking for a sector on the cusp of a massive consolidation, look at the deals between broadband providers, including some of the alternative networks.
Elsewhere, TV’s Industry took an even more shocking turn this week as the valuation of an African linked fintech business mirrored the first story we ever ran on this platform.
Keep reading for our round up of noteworthy deals this week.
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.
Something is stirring underground with the merger of Manchester-based broadband provider, Freedom Fibre, with smaller partner, Truespeed Communications, creating a network covering more than 412,000 premises and 70,000 customers.
The consolidation of the altnets, just as the cable companies that first dug up our streets in the 1990s, has an inevitability to it.
Truespeed, based in Bath, was launched in 2014 as a community interest company to take ultrafast broadband to rural, semi-urban and suburban areas across the South West.
It expanded rapidly over the next decade, developing a network offering higher connection speeds in rural areas often ignored by larger broadband operators.
A £75m investment by Aviva Investors in 2017 to speed up its roll-out was followed five years later by a further £100m, also from Aviva, and it often appeared in tables of the UK’s fastest-growing businesses.
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Drumacross has laid the foundations for its next growth phase, cementing a deal to bring Croftstone Management into the fold.
Completed on 6 February, the non-cash acquisition effectively fuses the Manchester and Stratford-upon-Avon consultancies into one reinforced operation, now trading under the Drumacross name.
By bolting together complementary strengths in quantity surveying, commercial management and project management, the newly enlarged group is built to go the distance - offering deeper expertise, broader capability and a sturdier platform for future growth.
With Quantuma helping to shore up the deal, Drumacross and Croftstone Management are wasting no time getting down to business and raising the bar for infrastructure consultancy.
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The trend this week seemed to be cross-border deals, with three English companies buying their way into Scotland.
Bristol’s Clifton Wealth Partnership acquired Kirkcaldy-based Cairn Independent and Glasgow-based JRW, adding almost £150m in assets under advice to bring the expanded wealth management group’s total to more than £3.5bn.
English accountancy outfit TC Group has meanwhile merged with Scottish firm MMG Chartered Accountants, which has been in business for more than 100 years, across offices in Perth, Dundee, Montrose, Forfar, Crieff, Brechin and Blairgowrie.
And finally, Buckinghamshire-headquartered aerospace company Flitetec has done a deal for the majority of assets belonging to Edinburgh-based rival Aeropair.
This expands Flitetec’s manufacturing and supply portfolio, while building on existing plastics and transparency manufacture and repair capability. Aeropair managing director Stephen Findlay Jnr will now become programme manager for business integration.
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A Huddersfield-based fire safety and security firm which has traded for more than 50 years has embarked on a new chapter after being snapped up by an acquisitive PE-backed counterpart. Centurion Fire & Security, which was founded in 1974, has been bought by Ranger Fire and Security, which is supported by Hyperion Equity Partners. Ranger certainly has big ambitions, saying it aims to become the leading one-stop provider for fire and security services across the UK and Ireland. It was founded in 2024 and since then has gone on a shopping spree, with Centurion being its 15th acquisition.
Hyperion says the deal means Ranger will be able to better reach customers across Yorkshire, as it continues to build up its expertise across the UK, Ireland and beyond. Centurion’s services include commercial CCTV installations, offering customers 24/7 monitoring. It also provides fire alarms, intruder alarms and access control to customers across the region.
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Lincoln-based DC Holdings has saddled up for growth, snapping up Trilanco in a deal that puts more horsepower behind its wholesale ambitions.
The acquisition brings Trilanco into the Battles stable, creating a bigger, stronger group covering equine, pet and animal health – and proving that in this market, teamwork really does make the dream work.
For now, it’s business as usual: orders stay the same, customers won’t have to jump any new hurdles, and both brands keep trotting along as normal.
Behind the scenes, though, the reins are tightening as operations combine, efficiencies kick in, and the newly enlarged group gets ready to gallop ahead in an increasingly competitive field.
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Sorry to bang on AGAIN about the brilliant TV drama Industry currently available on the BBC.
The latest episode was about a dodgy fintech business that falsified its figures and conned the market, and had deep roots in Africa.
Stop me if you’ve heard it before, but in the first edition of Rainmakers we told the wild story of Tingo, a dodgy fintech business that, well, yes, you can guess the rest.
Anyway, we’ve been looking back at this story as a result and will bring you a progress report soon. I just hope I don’t get bumped off first.
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TheBusinessDesk.com is to stage its first South West Rainmakers networking lunch, offering a unique opportunity to hear from some of the leaders in the region’s corporate finance sector.
This event, at Harvey Nichols in Bristol on 25 March, will bring together the key players in the South West’s rainmaking community to discuss the opportunities in the regional deals market as well as celebrating recent successes.
Speaking at the event will be TheBusinessDesk.com’s South West Rainmaker of the Year, Momentum Corporate Finance partner Alastair Boorman, and Changemaker of Year, Carmen Peacock, head of South West & South Wales, corporate & institutional banking, at Lloyds.
The pair were presented with their awards at the inaugural South West Rainmakers Awards in November – an occasion that brought together nearly 250 of the region’s corporate finance community to showcase the best deals of the previous 12 months and the teams behind them.
Alastair and Carmen will be joined by other Rainmakers Awards winners to give attendees at the lunch a chance to catch up with the key players in the region’s corporate finance community.
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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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