Scottish accountancy firm French Duncan hails £110 million of lockdown deal activity

Chartered accountancy firm French Duncan has hailed £110 million of lockdown deal activity while under new leadership.

Over the course of the past 15 months, the firm’s corporate advisory team has completed close to 20 transactions, with a combined deal value of more than £110m. It pointed to particularly strong activity in the care home, engineering and e-commerce sectors.

The firm, which employs more than 200 people across three locations in Scotland, appointed Iain Walker as head of corporate advisory in November 2020, taking over from managing partner Graeme Finnie.

Walker said: “Almost all of our portfolio of Scottish and international businesses has been impacted by the pandemic in some way. They have, however, shown great tenacity and resilience in pressing forward with their individual ambitions.

French Duncan, which employs more than 200 people across three locations in Scotland, appointed Iain Walker as head of corporate advisory in November 2020, taking over from managing partner Graeme Finnie. Picture: Rob Casey/SNS Group

“This year will no doubt come with its own challenges, however, there continues to be demand and appetite for quality businesses.”

One of the largest transactions was completed in September, with the £14m acquisition of Bristol Energy’s residential customer base by Together Energy.

French Duncan’s work helping clients access public sector support also delivered solidly within a “challenging climate”, with 16 diligence projects – both loan and grant funding – carried out, with a total project cost of £175m.

Activity is said to have come in well ahead of revised expectations following the onset of the pandemic.

The results come at a time when the overall Scottish mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market witnessed a sharp reduction in the number of deals, according to a report published by Experian at the end of 2020.

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