Done deals:

 

• Finsbury Food Group plc has bought Yorkshire Farm Bakery and A & P Foods for up to £8.9 million in order to increase its health food offering

• Thomas Cook Group plc has acquired luxury travel company Elegant Resorts, with total assets of £22.3 million

• Recruitment firm Manpower’s division Manpower Software plc has bought Key IT Systems for £830,000, in order to increase its staff management software capabilities

• Military systems supplier Cobham plc has acquired MMI Research for up to £16.6 million, in order to bolster its telecommunications offering

• Furniture investor designcapital plc has purchased Paris-based furniture suppliers Forum Diffusion and Forum Development for a nominal fee

• Waste management company Shanks Group plc has bought the Foronex Group for €13 million (£10.3 million) cash, plus debt of €23 million (£18.2 million)

• Spice plc, a commercial, public and utility support services company has acquired complementary companies Melton Power Services, Utility Technology and Line Design Solutions and GIS Direct for up to £4.5 million, £200,000 and £100,000 respectively

• Broker ICAP plc has bought, through its subsidiary Intercapital plc, rival companies the Link Asset and Securities Company for an initial £135 million

• Real estate consultant Colliers CRE plc has purchased Godfrey Vaughan, a property management and financial services firm, for £7 million cash

• Skipton Building Society’s Skipton Group Holdings unit has acquired 75 per cent of Symington Glass, holding company of independent financial adviser Thomson Shepherd
  (Source: MoneyAm)

• Travis Perkins plc has bought 30 per cent of Toolstation for £5 million in a bid to increase the company’s support services. It will also provide an initial loan of £7 million to allow Toolstation to repay debt

• Specialist insurer Hiscox has acquired 35 per cent stake of Media Insurance Brokers Intl

• KDC Contractors, a specialist decommissioning, demolition and remediation contractor, has been bought by its management team in a deal worth £12.5 million

• IT services provider, the IPL Group, has been bought through a management buy-out

• Exponent Private Equity and the existing management have acquired Lowell Holdings, the specialist debt purchasing company, from a fund managed by Cabot Square Capital

Deals in the pipeline:

 

• PureCircle has agreed to buy a further 40 per cent of China-based Ganzhou Julong High-Tech Food Industry for $8.5 million (£4.3 million) to increase its production of natural sweetener stevia

• UK insurer Aviva plc is to enter the Irish health insurance market through the acquisition of 70 per cent of VIVAS Group by Hibernian Group, its insurance business in Ireland

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