Brexit vote ‘subdues’ city’s 2016 deal values
The Brexit vote is believed to have adversely affected deal values of transactions made by Liverpool-based professional advisors in 2016.
During the year they reached just above £342m in 2016 – a decline of 13% compared to the previous year, according to the latest Experian report.
The statistics, presented by Professional Liverpool in association with financial information specialist Experian Corpfin, detailed the key trends in both value and volume of the deals Liverpool advisers worked on both across the UK and globally.
The report showed that the Liverpool deal market was considerably more subdued in the wake of Brexit, with the volume of deals declining by 17%, from 87 transactions in 2015, to 72 deals in 2016, with 87% of the deals by Liverpool-based advisers valued at more than £5m.
As in previous years, 2016 saw the strongest deal activity taking place in the first half of the year. However, despite the uncertainty of Brexit, November was the busiest month in value terms, with three deals of value greater than £10m.
Despite most areas experiencing a decline in activity, there were interesting trends within deals by sectors. The wholesale and retail sector experienced its busiest year in a decade, totalling 29 deals and overtaking the manufacturing sector from 2015, while the real estate sector recorded the lowest number of deals.
Presenting the findings to Professional Liverpool’s members on behalf of the corporate finance group were Jeff Cummins, relationship director NatWest Commercial & Private Banking, and John Bennington, national account manager at Experian Corpfin.
Cummins said: “2016 has been an interesting year in terms of the financial sector, with the increasing availability of alternative sources of finance, in many cases providing deal support alongside traditional options.
“Despite Liverpool based advisors acting on a lower number of deals in 2016, increased acquisition volumes were seen across the Region, with the wholesale and retail sectors featuring strongly. It is encouraging to see private equity backed deals rebounding following a disappointing 2015, however the Region appears to be lagging behind other parts of the UK in this respect.”
Bennington said: “2016 was a bumper year for mergers and acquisitions in the UK, with deal making confidence seemingly unaffected by an economic and political environment that might be conservatively be described as ‘unsettled’.”
“The North West in particular looks to have gone from strength to strength, with record levels of activity fuelled by increasing numbers of small to mid-sized deals and strong year on year growth returned across a wide variety of sectors. Liverpool based advisors have played a key part of this growth. As our report shows, the sheer breadth and range of transactions worked on by advisory firms in the city last year was striking, both in the North West and further afield, and speaks volumes for the capabilities of its burgeoning professional community.”
