The firm advised on a total of 27 deals in 2023, with Carson McDowell taking second place with 25. Davidson McDonnell Solicitors placed third with 18 and A&L Goodbody fourth with 17. Mills Selig came in fifth with nine deals.

Professional services and infocomms were joint second as the most active sectors for Northern Ireland with 30 transactions apiece. Whilst this was a 30 per cent decline on 2022 figures for the previously busy infocomms sector, the professional services industry was up by 25 per cent on the same period last year with the value of these transactions soaring to £53 million from £1m in 2022.

Hospitality, though not as busy overall, saw the volume of deals during 2023 increase by 50 per cent and the value increase to £51m. The two most prominent deals in the sector were the previously mentioned Pandox/ Hilton acquisition and the divestment by Quinn Group Properties, Belfast, of hotelier CRD Catering (City), Nottingham, to London-based Only Hotels, for an £11.2m consideration.

Despite a dip in volume, manufacturing remained the most active sector for Northern Ireland with 35 transactions valued at over £75m. Two of the top 10 transactions appeared in this sector including the £50m funding of Bamford Bus Company Holdings, an Oxford-registered company, trading from Ballymena, which manufactures buses trading under the Wrightbus brand.