Streets reports deals high
The demand for deals within the corporate finance sector, according to one East Midlands dealmaker – and it’s set to continue into 2017.
Neil Gray, who heads up the Streets corporate finance team, said: “There is a genuine appetite for businesses both to look at deals and restructure, whether it forms part of a growth strategy, a need to improve competitiveness or for exit and succession. Ironically whilst there is an air of uncertainty, business confidence and the general sense of the need to do things appears to be the driver, in essence the conditions are right.”
Streets’ corporate finance team advised on over 20 completed transactions in 2016. The eyar started off with the completion of a management buy-out, E E Smith , where the Streets team advised the management and raised the funds to achieve the £10.5m transaction and throughout the year, they continued to deal in all aspects of M&A activity.
In December, the team completed on three deals in the month, including an MBO for Arraquip, the trade sale of an estate agent and lettings business and an equity raise for Ekkosense financed by Foresight’s Nottingham fund.
Neil Gray believes that deal flow could continue to strengthen during the Brexit negotiations as business owners’ deal with the known economic circumstances.
