Electric Business

Health and technology firm Hero has acquired The Balanced You, a provider of mindfulness sessions, wellbeing retreats, reiki and hypnotherapy. The deal is Hero's third in 12 months, and comes just weeks prior to the launch of its first physical training club, in Angel Gardens, Manchester opposite Amazon's new HQ. Hero raised £1.3m to support growth overseas in June.

Sharp Business Systems UK has acquired Complete IT, a leading IT support services company. The deal strengthens SBSUK's position in the IT market with a more sophisticated suite of integrated solutions for the workplace. Complete IT reported turnover of £17.5m in the last financial year, up 18% from 2017-18.

London-headquartered FX firm ChangeGroup has extended its global reach with a deal for Swedish firm SVEA Ekonomi. The acquisition adds 16 branches and 100 staff to the UK-based group, growing its network to 118 outlets in 10 countries.

Cumbria marine services group James Fisher has acquired a 60% stake in Continental Participação E Administração, the holding company of Serviços Marítimos Continental S.A., for £7.5m. Continental is an established air diving service provider to the offshore oil sector in Brazil.

Grosvenor Chemicals, a Huddersfield-based firm which fell into administration as part of the Whyte Group last year, has been sold to JT Agro and Widecover. Grosvenor manufactured a wide variety of products for sectors including agrochemical, pharmaceutical, household and industrial markets, but has shut loss-making divisions since falling into administration and opted to focus on its profit-making agrochemicals division. Its new owner will trade as JT Grosvenor.

Arch Capital Group has entered into an agreement to buy Barbican Group from funds managed by Carlson Capital. The deal, which includes Barbican Managing Agency, Lloyd's Syndicate 1955, Lloyd’s Special Purpose Arrangement (SPA) 6132, Castel Underwriting Agencies and others, deepens Arch's relationship with Lloyd's and the London market.

ActiveOps, a global provider of cloud-based digital operations management solutions, has acquired software firm OpenConnect. ActiveOps says the deal will enhance its Workware software suite capabilities with use of OpenConnect's data capture technology. ActiveOps serves customers in financial services, shared services, business process outsourcing firms, government, healthcare and other service industries.

News Media Investment Group, the parent company of GateHouse Media, has agreed to buy Gannett (GCI), which owns USA Today and hundreds of local papers in the US as well as the UK's second largest regional newspaper publisher Newsquest since 1999. The deal creates "an unprecedented giant in American daily journalism". Newsquest owns a portfolio of more than 200 newspaper brands and magazines, including the Northern Echo.

Private equity firm Aurelius has backed BT's divestment from its Solihull-headquartered fleet management business. BT Fleet Solutions is a leading UK commercial fleet management business, with revenues of £209.5m in 2017-18. Established in 2002, it employs 950 people and manages more than 80,000 vehicles for 26 blue chip clients. It operates a network of 65 in-house garages, 500 partner facilities and more than 50 mobile technicians. The carve-out includes an agreement on a long term partnership to manage BT's own fleet.

Accessible Transport Group has finally found a buyer in National Express subsidiary West Midlands Accessible Transport, after falling into administration in March. Accessible Transport Group employed 700 people and operated more than 600 vehicles from nine depots across the region. Its new contract with Birmingham City Council will start in September, mostly supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The group includes Ring and Ride West Midlands and Accessible Transport Group Contract Services.