Rise In Dealmaking Activity Forecast For 2020
This news article is taken from Inside Media Limited – dated 20th December 2019.
An award-winning dealmaker has told Insider he expects a considerable increase in activity in 2020 with built-up demand in the market.
Nigel Greenaway, founder of law firm Greenaway Scott and Verde Corporate Finance, was named as Insider’s Dealmaker of the Year in 2018.
Looking ahead, Greenaway said he expected a more buoyant deals market in the year ahead.
“The perception of uncertainty in 2019 has postponed strategic investment across the board and the relative certainty promised in 2020 will see a positive upturn in activity,” said Greenaway.
“The key deal drivers in Wales will continue to be the improved access to capital and lending provided by the new challenger banks and alternative lenders that are becoming more and more active in the deal market in Wales.”
With the new UK government and Boris Johnson’s ‘oven-ready’ deal creating more certainty, Greenaway said he hoped dealmaking in Wales would not be restricted by “some of the weird decisions and policies that the Welsh Government continue to insist on introducing”.
He added: “It will also be interesting to see what happens in the first budget under the new UK government and hopefully it is not a difficult budget for SMEs and owner managers planning to acquire or exit respectively.”
As well as the ‘usual suspects’ of fintech, life sciences and clean energy, Greenaway thought sectors linked to infrastructure projects would attract the interest of private equity, although the trend for international buyers could be on the wane.
“The pound is strengthening against the Dollar and the Euro and is expected to continue to do so in the short to medium term,” said Greenaway.
“That makes a UK investment/purchase relatively more expensive than it would have been six months ago which will have a bearing on the actual number of international buyers that acquire in the UK.
“The flip side to that of course is that any UK company looking to acquire overseas will benefit from the increase in the strength of the pound.”