Ramon de la Sota

Great webinar with FT Live on the Global M&A Outlook in the EMEA Region. There is a feel of the optimism in EMEA’s M&A landscape, with private equity leading the charge and valuations on the rise. Geopolitical certaintly, growth agenda, and interest rates certainly will provide confidence in the market, therefore, the future is looking really good. #wheredealsaremade #privateequity #mergers

3

#Hargreaves_Lansdown Hargreaves Lansdown backed the £5.4 billion bid for the FTSE 100 fund manager today from a private equity consortium, a deal that will end its time as a listed company. The Bristol-based finance firm has been listed in London since 2007. It said today that the final offer valued its shares at 1140p in cash and would include a 30p per share dividend for the financial year which ended on 30 June. Compared to the Hargreaves Lansdown share price before the approach was first made in April, the price is at a premium of over 54%. The consortium is made up of CVC, Nordic Capital and ADIA. Hargreaves Lansdown is named after its founders – Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown – who set it up as an investment tip sheet. It now runs a state-of-the-art trading platform from which clients can run their own portfolios and pensions. https://lnkd.in/dKpizupy

4

In the recently published 𝗔&𝗠 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁 (𝗔𝗔𝗔) 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸, the team presents five key predictions for shareholder activist activity in Europe over the next year. 1. Increased M&A activity will be a key driver of shareholder activism; 2. There will be greater focus on public to private transactions; 3. Operational transformation will be an additional value-add for activists; 4. Internal vs external capital allocation decisions will come under greater scrutiny; 5. The desire for near term investment yield will slow the ESG momentum. Find out more in the latest Activist Alert: https://okt.to/A5fV7s #ActivistAlert #Activism #Europe

1

It was great to get the investment in Stacatruc Limited completed. The first of many to come at YFM Equity Partners from Matt Gordon-Smith, with huge support from Callum Long. It took us longer to convince Matt Gordon-Smith to come and join us than it did for him to complete his first investment with us. Stacatruc is the 4th investment in the last 5 months - with another 6 in diligence across the business. We have a big team now though so plenty of capacity across all of our offices to talk about new opportunities. We can invest between £3m and £15m of equity. Either to fund a Change of Ownership when a business has £1m+ profit (MBO's, partial cash outs, carve outs etc), or Growth Capital to go faster when a business has £1m+ Revenue or ARR.

37

Anoop - I agree with you - preparation is key to getting a #deal done and if the preparation focusses on data then that definitely helps buyers. #PrivateEquity and businesses they back are particularly keen to see the data supporting the growth story for the business. CP Deals works with businesses, frequently alongside Anoop and his team, to find the right #buyers and #investors and we know that having great systems in place is an important factor in a successful deal.

15

Discover the reasons behind the $135B decline in UK M&A deal value in 2023 by watching our webinar recording featuring Bain's M&A experts, Peter Horsley and Suzanne Kumar, as they delve into Global and UK M&A industry insights.

4

Excellent role modelling

10

This is exactly what we hear from the VCs that we back. In the UK, there is no shortage of capital for world-class founders. There is a shortage of world-class founders. We need to create the conditions where the very best founders choose the UK as the place to build their companies. If we do this, then the capital will follow. Strong-arming UK pension funds to invest in UK VC funds or, even worse, directly into UK companies, is not the answer. For a more detailed view on this, please see the white paper we published last year on the Mansion House initiative. https://lnkd.in/e86HSxrY

44

11 Comments

The British Business Bank produced a great report last week on the performance of UK VC funds (link in comments) over the last 20+ years. As with all reports like this, it's really important to dig into the detail and not just rely on the headlines. In particular, I was keen to compare the performance of the best UK funds to those in the US. While accepting the limitations of the data (all performance data on VC is based on a very low sample size), it's still interesting to see how the UK funds in the BBB report compare to the Cambridge Associates US VC benchmarks. As you can see from the chart below, the top quartile benchmark for UK funds exceeded the US funds for the period 2002-2007. But the sample size for UK funds in this period is particularly low (eg just five funds for the 2004/05 period). Since 2008, the top quartile UK funds have underperformed the US benchmark, and since 2010 are much closer to the US median return than the upper quartile. There are some outstanding founders and companies in the UK and some strong-performing VC funds. But the reality of VC is that performance is driven by a small number of outlier investments. Without these, it's almost impossible to deliver 3x net returns to LPs. For the UK to really become competitive with the US, we need to see more UK-based companies able to scale and exit at valuations in excess of $5bn. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to achieving this. We consistently hear from our VC managers that there is no shortage of capital for the best UK companies. Where there is a shortage is in the number of world-class founders looking to build in the UK. Get this right and the capital (and returns) will follow.

37

3 Comments

If these are good times for m&a bankers, they’re great for those whose rolodex is stuffed with contacts in asset management and insurance. The challenges in equities and the opportunities in private credit are forcing a rejig of the relationship between the two connected industries — and everyone is grappling with the best form of cohabitation. In the traditional model, insurers had in-house asset-management businesses to oversee the capital backing pension plans, annuities and life-insurance liabilities. The direction of travel has lately switched. In 2021, Apollo moved to buy back Athene, an insurer it created and took public, while KKR now owns Global Atlantic. Is there now a third way? Buyout firm Blackstone Inc. invested $500 million in life insurer Resolution Life in 2022 in a deal that handed it the mandate to manage a $25 billion portfolio. That stake will now be profitably sold following Nippon Life Insurance Co.’s agreement this week to buy Resolution. But Blackstone keeps a very lucrative slice of the action – the contract to run the assets.

23

A&M Managing Director, Jonathan Nus, was featured in a recent Bloomberg Tax article on the complexities of warning signs and the impact of 'continuing as a going concern' in corporate bankruptcies. Read the full article below! #AlvarezandMarsal #Bloomberg #Tax

15

Major Barloworld shareholder rejects R120 offer, demands R130! Silchester says consortium’s offer is undervalued. UK-based SILCHESTER INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS LLP, a major investor in JSE-listed Barloworld, does not believe the offer from the consortium that is proposing to buy out all the ordinary shares in the JSE-listed group is “compelling”. A firm offer by the consortium last week values Barloworld at R23 billion and comprises a cash offer of R120 per share that will not be reduced by the R3.10 per share dividend already declared by Barloworld on 22 November. However, Silchester director Tim Linehan said the firm is unwilling to tender its Barloworld shares unless the consortium offers at least R130 per share. Linehan said a full privatisation of Barloworld is unlikely to succeed without the support of the group’s primary shareholders, including Silchester. Silchester owns 33 531 795 ordinary shares in Barloworld, which represents 17.7% of Barloworld’s issued share capital. The consortium comprises Entsha and Gulf Falcon Holding Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Zahid Group, a multidisciplinary conglomerate headquartered in Saudi Arabia and an effective 18.9% shareholder in Barloworld. Entsha is a newly incorporated company that is ultimately owned by The Katlego Le Masego Trust, an inter vivos trust established for the benefit of Barloworld CEO Dominic Sewela and his family. The scheme of arrangement requires the support of 75% of eligible voters who participate in the meeting – in their own capacity or by proxy – for it to succeed. The holders of about 22.92% or 43 367 048 of Barloworld’s shares are not eligible to vote on the proposed transaction. These excluded shares are those held by the Zahid Group (35 834 624), Barloworld Foundation (6 578 121), Dominic Sewela (653 207) and Katkego Le Masego Trust (401 096). Lineham said Silchester intends to exercise all rights available to shareholders in South Africa to protect the financial interests of Silchester’s clients. https://lnkd.in/dfqbFvix

5

We made 10 predictions for the next 20 years of Private Equity in RealDeals' 20th anniversary 500th edition in January 2022. At the time, interest rates were at all-time lows and deal-making was in full-swing. We were spot-on: 4 of 10 predictions have already happened. 4 are in process and 2 are just beginning. See what's next: https://lnkd.in/dydNNMQQ

28

Buy-and-build continues to be one of private equity’s most popular strategies, but a sustained period of higher interest rates is making it a lot harder to drive returns. In our webinar recording, Bain expert Alexander De Mol explores this topic in detail.

4

Buy-and-build continues to be one of private equity’s most popular strategies, but a sustained period of higher interest rates is making it a lot harder to drive returns. In our webinar recording, Bain expert Alexander De Mol explores this topic in detail.

1