2. Trustmarque
Deals announced in 2025: 1 (Ultima – October)
Deal magnitude: Puts it “on trajectory” towards £1bn GII
Appetite for M&A
Trustmarque only did one deal in 2025, but it was a biggie.
Having not made an acquisition since February 2023 (in the shape of SAM consultancy Livingstone), Trustmarque shook hands on one of the UK IT channel’s biggest mergers in recent history when it joined forces with Ultima.
The 20-month M&A hiatus was not through a lack of trying, CEO Simon Williams stressed.
With Trustmarque and Ultima’s respective private-equity backers, One Equity Partners and Apse Capital, both taking a “merger-like” stake in the enlarged company, the deal is being positioned as a merger rather than an acquisition.
The union creates a resale and services powerhouse with over 1,000 employees and 3,000 customers.
What they said
“I’m thinking of it either as a jigsaw or a yinyang, where you have multiple pieces coming together to create a beautiful picture,” – Trustmarque CEO Simon Williams
Background bulletin
Trustmarque claims to support more than 80% of the UK’s healthcare organisations.
See next page to discover who was 2025’s most-acquisitive channel partner…
