00:00Hi, I'm Kurt Jacobs, the editor of Midlands Business Insider, and I've just shared a fascinating
00:16debate on growth through acquisition. I brought together some most enthusiastic acquirers of other
00:23companies based in this region. We're talking businesses here that buy the firms on levels of
00:28dozens, scores of companies, and we're finding out why they do it. What do they get in terms of extra
00:37services, extra new people, extra skills, IT? And we look at the problems, integration, culture,
00:47getting the right price. And we also look at, sometimes, even though the deal looks great in
00:53paper, why do they walk away? Because it just doesn't feel right. Let's hear some of their comments.
01:01Hi, David Beach, CEO, Knights, PLC. Fabulous day today. Great to see different sectors all have
01:08such a common approach to M&A. I thought that was terrific. The takeaway for me was the three H's,
01:15history, honesty, and hope. I won't forget that when doing acquisitions. I thought that was fantastic.
01:19Hi, I'm Ben Bolt from Chalbrook Bank. I'm a senior director in the corporate leverage team.
01:24Key takeaways for me from this morning is how much planning and effort goes into the post-merger
01:31integration process from the M&A directors around the table. They take it incredibly serious,
01:38making sure that the cultures work, making sure that people are engaged with and can see a future
01:44with the new owner. There's been a very diverse range of businesses and sectors here. But I think
01:51what is common is the benefits of growth by acquisition, acquisitions. But what is also common
02:01is the themes in terms of the challenges and the objectives and the results, regardless of what sector
02:07you're in, what industry. They're common. There's a lot of shared ideas and themes that everybody's
02:13come away from and made a couple of good contacts and people are going to follow up with.
02:17So, Oli Devine, Corporate Development Director at Hill and Smith PLC. I think the main thing that I
02:22took from the session today is just vastly different approaches to M&A, whether that be
02:28really getting stuck into the people, processes, the AI is one of the scenarios that we took. So,
02:35that variety of approach is sort of more than one way to skin a cat, as it were.
