00:00Hello, I'm Simon Keegan, I'm the editor of the Northwest Business Insider, and on today's
00:10daily business briefing, I'm joined by a special guest, Paul Jefferson, the National Head of
00:16Private Equity for Gately. Gately are going to be our headline sponsors for the first
00:23ever Dealmakers Lunch, the theme of which, aptly enough, is leveling up private equity.
00:30So welcome to the studio, Paul. Thank you, Simon. So tell us, first of all, Paul, before
00:36we get into the event itself, has it been a pretty busy period for you in the deals
00:41market lately? It's been, yeah, it's been busy, but some of that activity level latterly
00:47has been spurred on by the sense of apprehension around the budget and whether capital gains
00:52tax rates will change. So like a lot of businesses, a lot of law firms, a lot of professional
00:56advisory firms in the Northwest, we've seen a massive uptick in October in anticipation
01:02of the budget. The budget itself turned out to be far better than it might have been for
01:06corporate world, and therefore we're anticipating business as usual in the second half of our
01:12financial year, so through to the end of April 2025. So 2024 has been a mixed year, I guess,
01:19across the board, not just for us at Gately, but talking to people in the market and anecdotally,
01:23as well as looking at the stats. It's been a relatively subdued year in terms of corporate
01:29finance and private equity. It gave them two halves, really, wasn't it? It started off
01:33slow and then, as you say, there was that real flourish towards the budget, really,
01:37wasn't there? Yeah, absolutely, and so we've had relatively sluggish activity levels Q1,
01:45calendar year 2024, deal volumes were down, deal values down, private equity funder transactions
01:51down, and that's picked up. We've come through. I think the budget, I think also now that
01:56we're through the election, both in the UK and the US, there's a greater sense of certainty
02:01in terms of the road ahead, and therefore that's fueling more activity levels. The pipeline
02:06in our place and across the board when talking to others remains strong, I think, into 2025.
02:11So we're cautiously optimistic. I think things have normalised and become slightly stronger
02:16as we go through this year into next. Yeah. Well, this brings us to the Dealmakers' Lunch.
02:21So this event is taking place on Tuesday 19th November at Manchester Hall. Paul, you're
02:29the headline sponsor of this, or Gately are. So first of all, why did you want to be involved
02:35in this event? Why is it important for Gately to be sponsoring this? We wanted to get involved
02:39because we have a strong and significant corporate presence and banking presence in our Manchester
02:46office. We're very active in the market. But I think, in common with a lot of people in
02:51the North West market, I don't think we make enough of the CV, of the brand strength, of
02:57the opportunities we've got in the North West. So partly for us, it's about promoting what
03:03we do, but also it's about promoting the region. And I think that's really important because
03:08we'll talk about it on the day, but actually, when you look at the performance of the region
03:12in corporate transactional terms, both in terms of value and in terms of volumes of
03:17transactions, I think there's room for improvement. We are a decent market, but I think we sometimes
03:23are a little complacent in terms of thinking where we ought to be in those rankings and
03:28how much more we can improve and how much better we can promote the region. Definitely.
03:32Well, you know, when we came up with the idea for this, we've obviously, we've done the
03:36Dealmakers Awards for the last 30 years and we gather together, you know, nearly 1,200
03:42people from that dealmaking community in that room, Man Central. Everybody has an amazing
03:47time and we present all those awards. But we felt, you know, we could do more. We could
03:52tap into some of that knowledge that we've got in that room and take things forward.
03:58Now, what we really felt was we didn't want to do an event where, you know, it's the usual
04:04platitudes, everybody sitting around, kind of back slapping ourselves and saying, well,
04:09don't we support tech well? And aren't we the second biggest private equity community
04:13in Europe? You know, we all know these things. What we wanted to do was challenge people.
04:19What can we do better? What about the deals that are currently going to London? What about
04:23the deals that we should be doing in the Northwest, but we're not? What about the sectors that
04:30we're not doing deals in? So we really wanted this to be something where, you know, the
04:35audience don't just sit there kind of nodding and then leave. We want people to be challenged
04:40and people to learn things and people to kind of be inspired to do things differently. And
04:47I think, luckily, that idea has kind of landed really well with you, because I think that's
04:54a lot of the stuff you're going to be talking about at the event, isn't it?
04:58Absolutely. I mean, I think it's quite a surprise when you look at the stats, and I won't go
05:02into it in too much detail now, because there's a time and a place for that on the day. But
05:07the Northwest is a fantastic professional community, funders, advisory, legal. We've
05:13got a fantastic set of people, fantastic CV. But I think sometimes there is an element
05:18of self-congratulation. There's a time and a place for that, because we should celebrate
05:21success. But looking forward, I think what we need to do better is promote the region
05:27collectively, collaboratively. We need to be better ambassadors for Manchester, Liverpool,
05:32Greater Manchester in terms of what we've got here, because I don't think that's recognised.
05:37We might feel in the Manchester bubble that we're the second biggest private equity community.
05:41Look at the stats, actually. We weren't second in terms of volumes of transactions. We're a
05:47small part of the value curve in the UK. Now, we can improve that, but we need to promote that.
05:53Let me stop you there, Paul. I would have thought that Manchester and the Northwest
05:59was number two. So you're saying in the last year, we actually weren't. So what did that
06:06ranking look like? If you look at volumes of transactions, reported transactions over the
06:11last 12 months, end of 23, we were behind, not just in value terms, which you might expect.
06:19Taking London out of the equation, we were behind in volume terms, the Midlands and the
06:24Southwest, bizarrely. But I think it's too easy to accept the mantra within the bubble that we are
06:31doing fantastically well and we're the second best outside of London. I think we need to challenge
06:35that. I think we need to look at... Because there's two things, I think, that flow from that.
06:39One is, is there an acceptance that we're doing fine and we don't need to push harder? Secondly,
06:44when you look at the stats, as deals get to a certain size, there's a sort of default setting,
06:50not only outside of here, but in terms of some of the houses, corporate finance,
06:54funding houses in the Northwest market, that you get to a certain level, you have to go to London.
06:59That check size upwards, you've got to go to London.
07:01And that's not true.
07:02Right. Because we've got the expertise here, haven't we?
07:05We have. There are some areas where I think we need to upskill, but we'll talk about them
07:09at the event, some niche areas. But actually, in terms of transacting in the UK,
07:14corporate finance transactions in the UK, the CVs here are as good as any.
07:20So we've got the expertise, we've got the people, we've got the businesses,
07:24we've got the funders, and the community is big. But is the community doing as well as it thinks?
07:29Maybe not. Maybe we need to work out how we push that on.
07:33Well, we'll address that on the day. I mean, as well as yourself, we've got some fantastic
07:37speakers. I mean, he's got to be just about the most decorated dealmaker in Northwest history.
07:43We've got Jonathan Boyers on the panel, of course, recently moved from KPMG to Alvarez and Marcel.
07:51Very much a heralded entry there. Be interesting to see what he does
07:55going forwards in the deal market. Be interested to know his thoughts on this as well.
08:00Some other great speakers as well, haven't we? Like Claire Alvarez,
08:02no relation to Alvarez and Marcel, I don't think.
08:05No, no.
08:06People like that on the panel. We've got Rowan from K3, we've got Jen from Shawbrook.
08:12Fantastic panels, haven't they?
08:13Yeah, we've got good seasoned operators on there. I'll be interested to hear their
08:19thoughts on what I'm talking about and also what their thoughts are for the future.
08:23I mean, the advent of A&M's presence in the market is a great catalyst for additional deal value,
08:29additional deal growth, and the funders that we've got on the panel, their CV speaks for itself.
08:37I'll be interested to understand, and hopefully they're on side with the concept of us collectively
08:44and collaboratively being better ambassadors for Manchester, because we'll come under pressure
08:48from London with the advent of some technology with AI, etc. Their cost of sales will come down.
08:53Some of the stuff they've shipped out to the regions or have been content for the regions
08:57to do historically, I think they will see as more profitable and therefore something
09:01that should be kept in the London bubble. We need to be ready for those challenges.
09:04We're going to get squeezed on both sides, so we need to be out there promoting the Northwest
09:09and challenging the narrative that at a certain level, deals have to go to London. Absolutely not.
09:14That's what it's all about, Paul, being ambassadors and challenging those narratives.
09:18I think you've encapsulated it perfectly there. So we've almost sold out on this event,
09:23but there's still a few tickets left. There'll be a link on the bottom of this video,
09:29but if you go over to insidermedia.com, you'll find the event there as well. It's the Dealmakers
09:35Lunch Series. We're calling it Leveling Up Private Equity, because that's what it's all about.
09:40Fantastic. Yeah, looking forward to it. Me too. Thanks a lot, Paul.
09:42Thanks, Simon. Cheers.
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