Jim Keeling, our Chairman and CEO, was delighted to discuss with Spear’s magazine why he believes 2024 could be a record year for mergers and acquisitions in the private market. With his firm’s niche in advising owners of privately owned companies with a value of £10 - 150 million, Jim explained that this market has been relatively unscathed by the slowdown in the larger mergers and acquisitions market as buyers of smaller companies are not so reliant on debt financing and are less perturbed by high interest rates and lingering uncertainty. He and his team are seeing plenty of buyer appetite for the businesses they are selling.

Jim is also encouraged by the growing number of ultra-high-net-worth investors wanting to invest in private companies and, after a slow year or so, many private equity funds have increasing levels of cash that needs deploying. This can only be good news for owners of strong businesses, many of whom are high-net-worth individuals and are now ready to de-risk and turn at least some of their energies elsewhere.

Read the full article here, and if you're considering selling your business and would like more information, please get in touch.