Bernard Ginns: M&A activity highlights a two-speed economic recovery

First came the 85m deal at Zenith Provecta, the fourth management buyout in seven years at the fleet management firm. Led by managing director Andrew Cope, this is an interesting business that manages a fleet of 27,000 vehicles on behalf of corporate clients.

The choice of partner for the latest MBO is also interesting. Morgan Stanley is taking a stake in the 130m-turnover business through its private equity arm.

The US investment banking giant adds significant firepower to the Leeds company, which has said it will look at acquisitions. I wouldn't be surprised if Zenith Provecta emerges as a potential buyer if Lloyds Banking Group ever decides to offload its profitable Lex Autolease business.

Next came the 75m Allied Glass MBO, backed by Barclays Private Equity (which, incidentally, exited Zenith days earlier). Again this is an interesting business with a good management team led by the 36-year-old Alan Henderson. He told the Yorkshire Post that the new backers would consider future acquisitions.

Both of these businesses have clear growth potential and the funds to make future acquisitions. Both deals show there is appetite among buyout firms for good opportunities, but I am not holding my breath for a stampede of similar MBOs.

"Private equity firms have more money to invest than they can find quality deals," David Hardless of Park Place Corporate Finance told me last week.

In my view this is because many companies have spent the last two to three years on cutting costs and not spending sufficient sums on research and development.

This has left those businesses pared back and lacking in new products and services – not an attractive proposition to private equity firms, apart perhaps from those that specialise in turnaround.

What the Zenith Provecta and Allied Glass deals show us are that we are seeing a two-speed recovery. Those that cleverly managed to maintain or even increase the right kind of investment during the recession are in a great position to race ahead and steal market share while weaker rivals limp on, sustained only by a benevolent HMRC and low interest rates.

As for the wider economy, the considered view has to be that we are in recovery, albeit a slow one.

How the world has changed since Sense Internet began life. The company "accidentally" started designing websites in 1995, recalled its managing director; accidentally because no-one else was doing it.

"Very quickly we landed high-profile accounts because there was not much else out there," said Aidan Cook. An early account was with Asda, the Leeds-based supermarket giant.

"When we started working with them in 1996 there was one computer in the HQ connected to the internet and nobody had email accounts. It's changed a wee bit."

You can say that again. The commercial world's dependence on the internet affords no guarantee of survival to services firms though, as Sense found out.

Clients who relied on consumer spending delayed or cancelled projects, damaging revenues at the web designer.

Instead of fighting on and running the risk of going into administration, the company directors decided – to their credit – to take the honourable way out and so Sense Internet, which at its height employed 40 people and had sales of 2m, will cease trading on August 31.

Three years on from the credit crunch and still the world's main financial markets cannot come to a clear agreement on how to regulate the banks.

I get the feeling that governments will just muddle on in time-honoured fashion and hope for the best.

Some good books have emerged about the crisis though, including The Greatest Trade Ever, by Gregory Zuckerman, which is just out in paperback. Mr Zuckerman, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, tells the story of how a relatively unknown hedge fund manager called John Paulson read the signs right, placed a massive bet against the markets and reaped a mammoth $20bn windfall.

Reading this book is like watching a disaster movie; you know what's coming, but still you read on, hooked on every last appalling detail.

Reflecting on the lessons learned, Mr Zuckerman said: "Those who anticipated the collapse all were outside of the mainstream. They shared a supreme conviction in their gloomy, unorthodox views, a historic perspective, and an ability to ignore immediate setbacks.

"Only by encouraging these contrarians within business and government can we hope to avoid future meltdowns."

In other words, society's most powerful institutions need awkward people asking difficult questions.