The agreement to restore power sharing at Stormont in February may have been the most important deal done in the north during 2024, but it was still a massive year on the business front.
The sale of Harland & Wolff to Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia capped off a major year of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.
A mega-deal in April where a Hong Kong-led consortium bought the north’s main gas distributor Phoenix Energy was the biggest acquisition in nearly a decade and the third highest by value in Northern Ireland corporate history.
The consortium, made up of three firms belonging to Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s CK Group, paid around £760 million for the company, which now operates the largest natural gas distribution network in the north.
There was also big news in Fermanagh in August, with the building products firm once part of the Sean Quinn business empire, sold to a Turkish conglomerate for around £280m.
Mannok Holdings, formerly known as Quinn Industrial Holdings, employs around 800 people.
French multinational Saint-Gobain also made its move into the north’s minerals sector this year, announcing an agreement to buy quarry business Kilwaughter Minerals in October.
From the North Carolina-based Teamworks takeover of Ormeau Baths-based Kairos to EPAM’s £230 million deal to buy the consulting business First Derivative from Newry-based FD Technologies, the Northern Ireland tech scene also saw a flurry of M&A activity right across the scale this year.
EPAM’s deal involves around 1,800 First Derivative staff moving under the Pennsylvania-based digital technology company.
Other tech M&A highlights included French private equity firm Keensight Capital taking a majority stake in Derry-based cyber security awareness training firm MetaCompliance.
- North’s largest gas distributor Phoenix to be acquired by Hong Kong consortium for £760mOpens in new window
- Former Sean Quinn business is sold to Turkish conglomerate for £280mOpens in new window
- US software giant EPAM to take two offices in north as part of £230m First Derivative dealOpens in new window
While in Belfast, global private equity firm Vitruvian Partners acquired Options Technology during October.
The fast-growing company, headed by the tech entrepreneur Danny Moore, employs more than 600 people worldwide, including around 200 in Belfast.
Elsewhere in Belfast’s software scene, product development firm Instil bought cyber security consultancy Vertical Structure.
Meanwhile, two of the biggest names in the north’s property market announced a merger in August.
The strategic merger of PropertyPal and Propertynews came just a few months after Used Cars NI founder Cecil Hetherington’s move to buy the former.
Acquisition was also the story of the year for the north’s communications and consultancy scene.
Belfast’s MCE was acquired by London-based Cavendish in April, while global advisory and investing platform Consello moved for Belfast-based strategic communications and public affairs company Lanyon Group in November.
It was another busy year in the north’s hospitality sector.
In terms of monetary value, few deals this year will come close to the £28m paid by the Galgorm Collection for the Roe Park Resort in Limavady and Galgorm Castle Estate in Ballymena.
The Co Antrim hospitality group said it will invest around £22m in both sites.
This year also saw a new entrant in the sector, with major Irish group MHL Hotel Collection buying the former Park Inn Hotel in Belfast city centre.
MHL, which owns the Powerscourt Hotel in Wicklow and Dublin’s five star College Green and interContinental hotels, will relaunch the Clarence Street West venue as the north’s first Moxy by Marriott hotel.
Elsewhere, the 176-year-old Londonderry Arms in Carnlough was bought by three businessmen in the summer of 2024.
Adrian McLaughlin, Darryl McNally and Carl Harrison have relaunched the Glens of Antrim venue as the Harbourview Hotel, with a focus on Ireland’s growing whiskey tourism market.
In Derry, the owners of the City of Derry Hotel also announced a franchise deal with Hilton to rebrand the venue as DoubleTree by Hilton Derry following a £7m refurbishment.
Other hotels changing hands in 2024 included The Lodge Hotel in Coleraine, bought by the McKeever Group for an undisclosed sum.
Belfast’s largest hotel group Andras House announced the acquisition of the ETAP Hotel on the Dublin Road for £7.35m in March.
It was a busy year for the family-owned hotel business, with deals penned with YOTEL and the InterContinental Hotels Group for two other future aparthotel projects in Belfast.
In terms of scale, the sale of the 448 acre Belle Isle estate and its island castle in Co Fermanagh during November, was perhaps the biggest.
The popular wedding venue, which had been listed for £7.5m, was bought by Crawford family, headed by Lisbellaw businessman Ronnie Crawford.
One of the final hotel deals completed this year was Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners’ acquisition of the Portrush Atlantic Hotel from Derry brothers Larry and Brendan Duddy Junior.
The deal by the Nashville-based group, which operates hotels under its Marine & Lawn golf portfolio, followed its acquisition of the Adelphi hotel in Portrush in 2022.
There was also movement in the pub and nightclub scene, with the Downey group sealing a multimillion pound deal for one of Belfast’s oldest pubs, Kelly’s Cellars.
A short distance away, the Kremlin complex, including the Donegall Street nightclub, Union Street Bar and Shoe Factory, was sold for close to £5m to a group of businessman from Co Armagh and Co Down in August.
The deals didn’t slow down in December, with Dublin-based Melior Equity Partners buying the majority stake in the north coast holiday park company Blair’s.
December also saw Irish publisher Media Concierge agree a £65.1m takeover of The News Letter and Morton Newspaper Group owner National World.
