Management buy-out figures rise in West Midlands

The West Midlands experienced one of the biggest leaps in management buy-out deal activity in the UK, in the first half of 2011 - more than doubling the figure from the second half of 2010.

According to figures released by the Centre of Management Buy-Out Research (CMBOR), the region saw eight deals completed in the first six months of 2011 - with a cumulative value of £764 million. This compared with just four deals that took place in the last six months of 2010, with a total value of £383 million.

The deal that gave perhaps the most significant boost to the figures was the multi-million pound buy-out of Phones4U by BC Partners, which took place in March.

On a quarterly measurement, the figures for the West Midlands bucked the national trend towards inactivity in management buy-out deals. The first quarter of 2011 saw 106 deals take place across the country, worth £3.6 billion, while the three months to June recorded just 59 such deals, valuing £2.3 billion.

Paul Harper, investment director at the Birmingham Office of Barclays Private Equity, said: "Overall, the UK private equity market has had a slow start to 2011 following a heightened level of buyout activity at the end of 2010.

"Buyout firms in general have been more inclined to sell than to acquire and overall, it is the exit market that has dominated UK deal flow in the first half of this year."

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