Merger ‘will help Altium conquer the world’
THE chief executive of Manchester-based Altium says the £250m merger with Japanese investment bank GCA is the perfect deal to take the company to a global level.
The two businesses with a combined revenue of more than £120m in 2015 and who have completed upwards of 315 deals between them in the last three years announced their union yesterday.
It the culmination of chief executive Phil Adams and his senior management team’s ambitious plans to take the North West business to a global stage.
“We had a record year 12 months ago and we sat down and thought about what we could to make us stronger,” said Adams.
“We realized we needed US coverage and chatted to three or four firms over possible partnership arrangements.
“But GCA asked if we’d be interested in a merger. Their biggest attraction for us is that they’ve got excellent reach in Asia and the US while we’ve got fantastic coverage in Europe.”
Adams said that modus operandi in Manchester will continue, but the Altium operation “will be better”.
“Our big focus is on growth companies,” he continued. “This adds another string to that bow. We now have massive team in Silicon Valley in California as well as in India, China and Japan.
“However, we will still be headquartered in Manchester where I will be based. And we will still be doing things the same way only better. It’s fantastic for the city.”
The move makes the enlarged business the seventh largest listed M&A business in the world.
The unified company will have offices in San Francisco, Manchester, New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Mumbai, London, Osaka, Beijing, Singapore, Munich, Zurich, Milan and Tel Aviv.
