South West Deals Analysis & PKF Francis Clark Deals Review

2019 South West Deals Review Now Available

The latest Experian Market IQ figures listing corporate finance deals which occurred during 2019 is now available. Below is a brief overview on how the South West region fared.

2019 will probably go down as the year of ‘repeated’ uncertainty. UK political stalemate, power vacuums in strategic locations and Twitter policy announcements saw worldwide deal value and volumes down significantly in the first nine months of the year. In the UK, deal volumes were subdued but supported by international buyers making the most of the ‘favourable’ exchange rates.

By the end of the year, global values had regained their position and ended up as the third highest year and fourth strongest in transaction volume for a decade, whilst in the UK transactions tailed off from the summer onwards, but remained more resilient in the SW.

Funding and transactions

In stark contrast to previous periods of economic and financial uncertainty (for those old enough to remember), the availability of funding (both equity and traditional debt and an increasing amount of AltFi) remained high, with credit limitations being mainly targeted at higher risk areas such as physical retail. With official interest rates being low by historical standards, this combination of availability and ‘low’ cost, enabled many transactions to complete which ten years ago would just not have been possible.

Divergence continued between quality and ‘also-ran’ assets, with the former … to read the rest of Andy Killick’s (Partner and Head of Corporate Finance) article and the review in full, please download it below.