Highlights include the disposal of Utiligroup to ESG, the disposal of Direct Group to Towergate, the sale of Fine Industries to Lianhe Chemical Technology and the IPO of Ramsdens Financial Services

Accountancy firm EY says its North West transaction advisory services team has completed deals worth more than £1.3bn in the first half of 2017.

Highlights include the disposal of Utiligroup to ESG, the disposal of Direct Group to Towergate, the sale of Fine Industries to Lianhe Chemical Technology and the IPO of Ramsdens Financial Services.

Other completed deals include the acquisition of UK2 by The Hut Group, the carve out of Future Industrial Services from One51 PLC and the refinancing of Northern Trust Group.

These completions follow on from a very active 2016, in which the team advised on 30 transactions worth more than £3bn.

Richard Harding, transaction services partner at EY in the North, said: “The M&A market in the North continues to be extremely strong.

“We are seeing increased activity from the local private equity community and acquisitive North West businesses, along with continued interest in the region from international corporates and investors.”

Earlier this week EY promoted Hilary Heap and Mark Clephan to equity partners in the North West transactions advisory team.

Hilary becomes a partner in the valuations and business modelling team and Mark leads EY’s mergers and acquisition team in the North.