Done deals:

• Whitbread Plc has bought two properties, the Comfort Inn Kensington and the Purple Hotel City of London, from the Real Hotel Company for £11 million
• Quest Leisure Products, a garden and leisure products specialist, has been bought by its management with £1 million provided by GE Commercial Finance
• Finance Wales and HSBC have backed a management buy-out at Vista Support Services, a support and maintenance services provider to electronic point of sales systems
• Plexus, an oil and gas engineering services business, has bought US company Plexus Deepwater Technologies from Grant Prideco for £1 million
• Forshaws Solicitors and Davies Ridgway Solicitors have merged to create Forshaws Davies Ridgway

In the pipeline:

• Xpertise is to create the UK’s second largest IT training provider after announcing its intention to buy Parity Training
• IS Solutions, a website designer and developer, is to add content management systems specialist Chapter26 to its offering after agreeing a £1.2 million deal
• Funds managed or advised by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman is to buy SSP Holdings Plc, an IT services provider to the insurance industry, for some £198 million
• Ithaca Energy, an independent oil & gas company, is to raise £35 million through a placing in North America and on AIM, which is being arranged by RBC Capital Markets and Tristone Capital