Regional Breakfast seminar

On the 19th of November, MarktoMarket hosted its firth regional breakfast seminar of the year, this time located in Manchester. Doug Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of MarktoMarket, was joined by Joe Stroud, Director at Aliter Capital. Below is a summary of the discussion that took place throughout the morning.

Key themes

Below are some of the key themes and observations that emerged from the breakfast seminar:

Deal activity in the North West has always been robust and that is only expected to continue into 2025. In 2024, MarktoMarket recorded 501 deals in the region, surpassing the total deal volume of transactions recorded in 2023 with two months remaining. Looking at the previous quarter (Q3 2024), 140 deals were completed compared to 107 during the same period in 2023. The North West has always been a dynamic M&A market, consistently trading places with the Midlands as the most active region outside London and the South East.

Guest speaker Joe Stroud provided valuable insights into Aliter Capital’s investment methodology.  Their approach is defined by the use of ordinary shares that rank alongside the management team, instead of using a more traditional loan notes structure.  Another differentiator is the relatively concentrated nature of the portfolio, with a small number of platforms but a big focus on bolt-on acquisitions.

Joe referred to a 100-day plan that he recommends to newly acquired companies, highlighting that SMEs often possess significant untapped growth potential and that changes are, in general, welcomed.

The conversation naturally turned towards the recently announced Autumn Budget. The consensus was that changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) were less severe than anticipated but the prospect of more material hikes in the lead-up to the budget led to an unprecedented rush to complete transactions.  Another mini-rush is anticipated before April 2025 when the narrowing of business property relief becomes effective.

Thank you to all those who attended and a special thanks to Joe Stroud for joining the panel.

MARKTOMARKET

MarktoMarket collects rich data on private businesses, particularly in the small and mid-market. Our easily searchable database allows our advisory, private equity and corporate customers to identify, analyse and price investments and monitor market trends to create their own content.

MarktoMarket’s auditable data gives users the confidence that they are dealing with intelligence that can be trusted.

To continue the discussions about how data can support your business, contact Olga Melnyk at olga@marktomarket.io.