Regional Breakfast seminar

On the 25th of February, MarktoMarket hosted its first regional breakfast seminar of the year in Birmingham. Doug Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of MarktoMarket, was joined by Scott Peters, Managing Director at Quantuma.

Key themes

Doug’s data presentation focused on West Midlands corporate finance trends and activity. In 2024, the West Midlands contributed 354 deals to the total UK M&A deal volume of 5,262 (6.7%).  The largest deals over the year included; the sale of a 20% stake in National Gas Transmission to Macquarie in a deal valuing the business at over £3 million; the exit of Dubai and Tamworth-based chemicals group Forsoc International to Saint Gobain for $1.025 million; and the takeover of property developer St Modwen by fellow housebuilder Miller Homes for £215 million.

In addition to M&A transactions, there were a further 195 equity fundraising deals completed in 2024.  We expect this to improve to 220-230 deals as late filings are included, we don’t expect the final figure to beat the 2023 total of 277 transactions. Total capital raised was also down to £237 million from £262 million.

Valuations improved alongside deal volumes, with the MarktoMarket All-Cap Index indicating a 10% year-on-year improvement in EV/EBITDA Multiples to 6.6x.  This remains some way short of 2021 and 2022 pricing but represents a positive trend versus the lows of 2023.

Doug’s discussion with Scott Peters began with Q&A on his background in debt and his current role as a Managing Director in the Corporate Finance team at Quantuma.

Scott shared his views on the outlook for M&A, citing private equity fundraising cycles as a key leading indicator for M&A volumes. On this basis, 2026-2030 should see high volumes of private equity exits.  In the meantime, he anticipates that 2025 will be skewed further towards trade activity on the buyside.

Scott believes that US trade tariffs have sent business owners looking to the US for their next leg of growth back to the drawing board and, maybe, more included to sell.  This should be another positive driver of activity in the year ahead.

Views on equity versus debt as a means to fund both inorganic and organic growth were discussed – Scott’s opinion is that funding should not be differentiated as debt versus equity but rather relative cost of capital.

Other topics included the efficiency of the SME M&A market, recruitment and the likelihood of regulation being tightened around corporate finance advice.

Thank you to all those who attended.  a special thanks to Scott Peters for joining the panel and Quantuma for their ongoing support. For information on upcoming breakfast seminars please email bradley.evans@marktomarket.io.

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.