Paul Makin, corporate finance partner at PwC reviews the North East deals market in 2010.

:: Click here to download the Annual Deals Survey 2010 - table in full

DESPITE a strong start to the year and total deal volumes being up on the previous year, deal activity remained subdued towards the end of 2010, with the majority of interest in North East companies being shown by UK-based and international trade buyers.

There were 141 transactions completed during 2010 with the traditional flurry of year end deal completions not materialising. The last three months of the year remained static with only 21 businesses bought or sold in the region.

This slowing down of activity may have been due in part to the uncertainty which surrounded the Government Spending Review in October. Although some transactions did subsequently complete before the end of the year, the majority weren't sufficiently advanced to complete before the start of 2011.

Disclosed deal values for 2010 were however significantly up on the previous two years at almost £2.03bn although the majority of this increase is accounted for by the £1.6bn acquisition of Arriva.

This was the largest transaction in the region for almost four years. Deutsche Bahn which announced the agreed takeover of Arriva in April also took over the operation of the Tyne and Wear Metro earlier in the year.

North East companies continued to attract strong interest from trade buyers despite the pervading uncertainty about the impact of the public sector cuts.

Lancashire-based Daisy acquired two local businesses during the first half of 2010 spending over £14m; BNS Telecom in February and Fone Logistics in June.

Stadium Group disposed of its plastics division to Kent based Flambeau Europlast for £2.5m also in June and insurance intermediary Cullum Capital Ventures acquired three North East businesses during the year.

:: Click here to download the Annual Deals Survey 2010 - table in full