THG, JD Sports, the Issa brothers and Frasers Group: The most headline-grabbing deals of 2022
Some of the largest companies operating in the North West announced numerous high-profile deals during 2022.
The likes of JD Sports, THG and Frasers Group were among those to have either sold or bought household names based in the North West over the last 12 months.
Below, BusinessLive has rounded up some of the most headline-grabbing deals of the year.
For a full list of the deals BusinessLive has covered during the year, click here.
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JD Sports
(Image: Derby Telegraph)
JD Sports was never too far from the headlines in 2022 with a number of high-profile announcements and movements at the top of the retail giant.
You can read every story BusinessLive has published during the year on JD Sports here.
But two deals the Greater Manchester made during the year proved popular with our readers.
The first was JD Sports selling Rochdale-based Footasylum for almost £40m to Germany-based asset management group Aurelius Group.
The second was the group selling 15 retail brands to Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group for almost £50m.
Frasers Group
(Image: Kirsty O’Connor/PA Wire)
Talking of Frasers Group, the retail giant has been heavily involved in the North West this year.
The East Midlands-headquartered group, which owns the likes of Sports Direct and House of Fraser, snapped up several brands based in the region in a string of high-profile deals.
They include buying Lancashire-based Studio Retail Group out of administration in February, Manchester-based Missguided out of administration at the end of May and fellow Manchester fashion brand I Saw It First in July.
Frasers Group has also invested in Manchester-headquartered fashion group N Brown in recent months.
THG
It’s been another interesting year for Manchester-based online retail and software giant THG.
The group was the subject of two potential takeover bids, one from property tycoon Nick Candy and another from Belerion Capital and King Street Capital Management.
They were abandoned before the news in October that Japanese technology investment giant SoftBank had sold its entire stake in THG to co-founder Matthew Moulding and Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
The transactions came after a $1.6bn deal that would have seen SoftBank take a near 20% stake in a major division of THG was abandoned in July this year.
EG Group
The Blackburn-based billionaire Issa brothers also hit the headlines during 2022.
You can read every story BusinessLive has published on the businessmen over the last 12 months here.
Their EG Group made the news at the end of September when it invested £25m in a zero-emission vehicles firm.
The brothers were also involved in a £600m deal to buy petrol stations from the Co-op through Asda, which they acquired in 2020.
They lost out to Morrisons in their bid to rescue convenience chain McColl’s in May. But they did acquire almost 300 service stations in Germany for €485m earlier that same month.
Steven Bartlett
(Image: Tom D Morgan)
Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett agreed a series of high-profile deals in 2022, not least through the hit BBC One show.
You can read about each one of the firms he has backed since he entered the Den here.
Elsewhere Mr Bartlett, who started his career in Manchester by co-founding Social Chain, invested in a creative agency focused on stopping greenwashing in the advertising and media industries.
K3 Capital
(Image: K3 Capital)
One of the largest deals in the North West in terms of headline figures was professional services group K3 Capital agreeing to be taken over by the former owner of Dreams and ScS for £271.7m.
The Bolton-headquartered firm revealed it had been talking with Sun European Partners, on behalf of Sun Capital Partners Group, in December after receiving “expressions of interest from multiple parties”.
K3 Capital was established in February 2007 by Tony Ford and a co-investor, to acquire KBS Corporate, then called Knightsbridge Business Sales plc, a business broker and business transfer agent.
United Utilities
(Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)
In July, BusinessLive reported that United Utilities had agreed to sell its renewable energy business for £100m.
The Warrington-headquartered water supplier’s United Utilities Renewable Energy (UURE) was to be acquired by SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust.
United Utilities has developed a portfolio of solar, wind and hydro renewable assets since 2014 and UURE comprises 69 MW of renewable generation assets across 70 sites.
Betfred
In June, Betfred acquired a majority stake in South Africa’s largest online betting company, LottoStar.
The Warrington-headquartered bookmaker, which was established by brothers Fred and Peter Done 55 years ago, already operates 53 shops in South Africa as well as an online business after the acquisition of Betting World and Sepels Sportsbet.
LottoStar offers fixed-odds numbers betting and live games on its online platform.
Auto Trader
(Image: Shared Content Unit)
Also in June, Auto Trader completed its acquisition of new car leasing marketplace Autorama in a deal which could be worth up to £200m.
The Manchester-headquartered group completed deal for an initial consideration of £150m while an additional £50m has been deferred “subject to customary performance conditions” in a year’s time.
Autorama has created a digital platform which aggregates leasing deals from multiple funders and OEMs under its Vanarama brand.
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