Watch: Business Briefing - 12th November 2024 - video Dailymotion

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A special guest interview in today's Business Briefing. Ahead of the Dealmakers Lunch: Levelling up Private Equity, editor Simon Keegan sits down with Paul Jefferson, national head of private equity for our headline sponsor Gateley, to discuss how our region could do so much more and where we are missing out in the deals market. This interview is a must for anyone in North West professional services.

Transcript

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.

Watch: Business Briefing - 12th November 2024

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