The FM Industry has shown resilience during the tough pandemic times even though quite a lot of disruption was seen in the overall business and economic environment in UK and across the globe as well. As per Grant Thornton through their latest quarterly review, Covid-19 could do very little to dull the attraction of a sector that benefits from strong recurring revenues, public sector contracts, increasing order books, non-discretionary spend and regulatory-driven demand. In order to mitigate whatever impact the pandemic had, the FM service providers went in for consolidation through mergers and acquisitions that also helped them boost their bottom lines and reverse the trend of eroding margins. As per this quarterly review by Grant Thornton, the year 2021 saw a decade high of 125 M&A deals in the FM Industry.

While overall M&A volumes have been far too higher than the previous few years, the shift to home and hybrid working has affected M&A in some specialized services like catering. Many companies in this sector have been considering how to evolve by embracing technology. A number of players went in for more than one or two acquisitions during the year, notables among them were Bidvest & Noonan, part of the Bidvest Group with five acquisitions, Reconomy with four, Adler & Allan four and Mitie with four acquisitions.

All through the pandemic, facilities management M&A has successfully ridden the storm and it is expected it to do the same in 2022. The winners this year will be those that take advantage of the sector’s strong tailwinds while still observing the fundamentals of good deal making.