Why buy and build is all the rage
Insights and observations on the current M&A market from around the UK
Hello Rainmakers,
Things are cranking up with some ambitious buy and build businesses, and not just in the tech space.
In an economy with low growth, the opportunity to grow an investment and deliver a return is through financial engineering, aggressive management of costs and sales, or strategic bolt on acquisitions that add something complementary. Read the commentary on all the deals here and you get that flavour.
The interesting question is whether that growth and expansion is vertical, or horizontal? In new markets, or adjacent?
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Cheshire-based HR software business Talos360 has acquired performance management platform Appraisd.
The acquisition, funded by private equity backer LDC, which first invested in 2022, adds features and services to the Talos360 applicant tracking system.
Tagged as a buy, build and integrate growth initiative, Appraisd was founded in 2012 and operates across over 65 countries with 210 clients.
In particular, the deal opens up the USA, Singapore, South Africa, UAE, Australia, and Canada, alongside its established presence in Europe.
“This is a pivotal moment for our business,” said Janette Martin, CEO at Talos360. “We’re passionate about developing proprietary award-winning talent technology for our clients, and now, in 2025, we’re delighted to welcome Appraisd as a key highlight of our Talent Operating System.”
Martin, who won CEO of the year at the 2023 Business of the Year Awards, said: “Talos360 customers can now access even more innovative talent technology to develop their people, helping HR, leadership and management teams to achieve the best results for their business. This move reinforces our commitment to creating a seamless, data-driven employee journey, from hire to retire and reflects our ambitions to continually solve the challenges faced by HR professionals to optimise workforce management.”
London-based Appraisd was founded by Roly Walter, who will join Talos360.
He added: “As a people-first business, it was important that Appraisd found the right home, within the right team and culture. With a great blend of product fit and company values I’m excited to see what the future holds for Appraisd within the Talos360 product family, and the ambitious growth strategy ahead.”
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Contollo Group’s ambitious drive to acquire built environment consultancies has landed KAM Project Consultants, marking its fifth strategic acquisition in just 13 months following the purchase of Abacus, MBA, TACE and ESP.
Backed by private equity firm NorthEdge, Contollo now comprises over 230 professionals across 19 offices, including its first German presence in Frankfurt.
Founded in 2013 by Kevin Sims and Mike Wilcock, KAM Project Consultants works in the industrial and logistics sector, delivering project and cost management services from six UK offices and a German base.
The acquisition significantly strengthens Contollo’s core project and cost management offering, complementing its inaugural acquisition, Abacus.
Ruth Percival, CEO of Contollo Group, said KAM’s scale in project and cost management significantly strengthens the rest of the group’s offering, particularly in the industrial and logistics sector—a market with big opportunities.
“2025 has already been a pivotal year for Contollo. As we integrate our teams, we remain focused on delivering smart, innovative solutions to our clients and identifying like-minded partners for future growth. Our expanding capabilities and sector expertise position us to add increasing value across the built environment,” she said.
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Beech Tree Private Equity has invested in Fourteen IP, a cloud telephony and AI solutions business based in Wigan that serves hotels all over the world with technology such as cloud based phones, and is already close to making bolt on acquisitions as part of an ambitious buy-and-build strategy.
The investment will position Fourteen IP for expansion into new geographic regions, notably Asia and Australia, as well as entry into additional market sectors, and through strategic acquisitions, funded through a committed acquisition facility from NatWest.
Founded 14 years ago Fourteen IP’s Evolution Voice and AI-powered EVA (Evolution Virtual Assistant) product will be introduced into new vertical markets, including into the US from its offices in Orlando. Recent customers include the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans and the Sheraton in Boston.
Previous experience in the tech sector suggests Beech Tree will be investing as part of a buy-and-build strategy as it did in scaling up Wavenet with eight complementary acquisitions over a four year period.
James Rosthorn in Beech Tree’s North West office led on this deal, and he’s clearly an important part of the increasingly sector-focused approach, given his previous experience at both Maven Capital Partners and Mazars LLP, respectively.
At Maven he led the successful exit of Fit Cloud Technology Limited (trading as Membr) to US trade buyer, Xplor Technologies.
Since 2023, Beech Tree has deployed close to £100 million across five new investments, including Sustainable Energy First, Obsequio, Covertswarm, Arc Systems, and Learnlight.
As he told Rainmakers this week: “It’s been a busy 12 months for Beech Tree in the region, following the acquisition of Accrington-based Sundown by Telana (formerly Ancoris), one of our portfolio companies, as well as our investment in Sustainable Energy First and their subsequent acquisition of Inenco.”
In its last set of published accounts to the end of the 2023 financial year consolidated turnover of the group was £16.6m, up £3.8m from £12.8m in 2022. Pre-tax operating profit before exceptional items at £1.8m, up £0.7m from £1.Im in 2022.
Rainmakers understands that Fourteen IP’s group turnover is now closer to £20m, but Beech Tree also hasn’t said how much it has paid for a stake, but the mid-market private equity investor typically writes equity cheques of between £10m and £40m.
Founded 14 years ago (how perfect is that?) and with Beech Tree’s telecom experience (they’ve worked wonders with Wavenet), Fourteen IP has all the right tools to power up its expansion plans.
What’s next? Expect more acquisitions, market moves, and maybe even a few rounds of telephone tag as they continue to grow.
Stay tuned – there are sure to be more calls to come!
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Out of the regions we cover, Manchester headquartered private equity investor Palatine backed its portfolio company Cyberfort to acquire ZDL to scale its cyber security services as it looks to accelerate growth over the next three years to become one of the largest independent cyber security providers in the UK.
Andy Strickland, Partner and technology sector lead at Palatine added: “In a world where cyber risks are ever-more prevalent and sophisticated due to the advancement of AI, we see a great opportunity for Cyberfort to strengthen its market position.
“The acquisition of ZDL strengthens our buy and build strategy, augmenting Cyberfort’s proposition with deep technical expertise and skills.”
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WestBridge has backed the management team at Koto, a creative agency that provides integrated brand strategy, identity and digital implementation services to some big hitters in tech, financial services, gaming, sports and healthcare.
This investment marks the fourth transaction from WestBridge III.
Koto’s founders James Greenfield (CEO), Caroline Matthews (COO) and Jowey Roden (CCO), will all stick around and retain a major shareholding as the agency looks to grow from its studios in London, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin and Sydney.
WestBridge’s Rory Whitrow, said it opens the door for creative businesses to have a conversation. “We back outstanding teams and businesses, providing support through our Value Creation Model to accelerate their underlying growth potential. Throughout the process, we’ve worked closely with the management team to identify the key value creation levers and start building a plan to invest for growth. With our buy and build expertise, we’re also excited about supporting the team on executing its M&A strategy.”
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Looks like Two Chicks has cracked open a big opportunity!
The Kettering-based egg white brand has just sold a majority stake to Eurovo Group, one of Europe’s largest egg producers.
While the value of the deal is still under wraps, the partnership is sure to help the brand hatch a plan for international expansion.
Founded in 2007 by Anna Richey and Alla Ouvarova, Two Chicks broke the shell of innovation by launching the UK’s first liquid egg white in retail - creating a whole new product category.
After teaming up with Eurovo back in 2015, Two Chicks is now ready to crack open a new chapter.
With Eurovo’s resources backing them up, the brand is all set to hatch fresh ideas, expand its product range, and scramble into new markets.
But don’t worry - founders Anna and Alla are sticking around to keep the vision sunny-side up.
So, what does the future hold for Two Chicks? One thing’s for sure - it’s bound to be egg-citing!
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In the healthcare space, it looks like Assura has gone for the money from big private equity beast KKR over a longer term underarm offer to merge with rival Primary Healthcare.
A week ago the analysts were purring at the prospect that Assura was mulling a lower offer that may have delivered better long term value over KKR’s final final final offer.
They even granted an extension to think about it. Then, boom.
The board of Altrincham headquartered healthcare property business Assura has rejected the revised proposal from Primary Health Properties for a share and cash offer and opted to accept KKR’s cash offer for the business.
Jonathan Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Assura, said: “The cash offer from KKR and Stonepeak offers an attractive opportunity for Assura Shareholders to crystallise value immediately and enables the Company to accelerate its growth via additional investment in critical healthcare infrastructure in the UK and Ireland. My team and I look forward to working closely with KKR and Stonepeak in the years ahead.”
KKR will pay 49p per share, a premium of 31.9% on the 37.4p per Assura share on 14 February 2025 when the bidding started.
It values Assura at approximately £1,608 million.
Panmure Liberum preferred the PHP option and said the new scaled business will benefit from a lower cost of capital, while Shore Capital analyst Andrew Saunders also said that proposal offered “significant value upside” over KKR.
Money talks.
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TheBusinessDesk.com’s Rainmaker Awards return this summer and will showcase a wider cross-section of the region’s deals community.
The hotly-contested regional corporate finance awards will continue to recognise teams, individuals and deals, and the shortlist and winners will be decided on by the community, as always.
This year we have asked all firms to submit a short entry, along with the key deals they have advised on, to ensure our judges have the full information when making their selections.
Once entries have been submitted the shortlists will be drawn up in the usual way, with TheBusinessDesk.com hosting 40+ leading corporate finance professionals on a judging day. Those shortlists are then voted on by a wider group of people from across the community, on a strict one vote per firm basis, to decide our 2025 winners.
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