News and insight: Insight
UK Lower Mid-Market sees 52 investments in the last six months – a record high since H1 2008. £2.0bn of aggregated deals - the highest value since H1 2008. The segment continues to attract Non-UK buyers, drawn by the strength of UK lower mid-market companies, the weakness in Sterling and the liquidity of the market.
Deal Volumes in H1 Defy Pre Brexit Panic
UK Lower Middle Market sees 40 Private Equity investments in the first half of the year with a total value of £1.63bn Significant uplift in activity in the second quarter of the year, with 23 of 40 deals completed in the three months to June Despite heightened market uncertainty in the run up to the UK’s EU referendum, investor appetite for UK-based SMEs in the first half of 2016 was on a par with 2015, signalling that investor confidence is still strong.
Investor appetite for UK based SMEs is at its highest level for five years according to research from Lyceum Capital and Cass Business School. Analysing private equity investments in 2015 with an enterprise value between £10m and £100m, the Lyceum Capital and Cass Business School UK Growth Buyout Dashboard reveals that the volume of transactions increased by 12% over the year, with 87 investments totalling £3.43bn (2014: 78 investments totalling £3.38bn).
Britain’s small and medium sized companies (SMEs) continued to drive the market for private equity led buyouts during the first half of 2015, according to Lyceum Capital and Cass Business School’s UK Growth Buyout Dashboard
The total number and value of deals in the UK private equity lower mid-market surged in the second half of 2013, according to Lyceum Capital and Cass Business School’s UK Growth Buyout Dashboard, providing a robust platform for the continuation of the segment’s recovery in 2014.
The lower mid-market underpinned deal flow in the UK’s wider private equity arena during 2012, according to the findings of Lyceum Capital and Cass Business School’s UK Growth Buyout Dashboard.
- UK lower mid-market (£10 million-£100 million) recovery continues in Q2 2012 with 25 transactions, up 25 per cent on the previous quarter (20) and 32 per cent compared to the same period in 2011 (19). - Total value for Q2 reaches £728 million, representing modest growth of three per cent on figures for Q1. - UK lower mid-market results come in stark contrast to wider European buyout conditions, which saw a 37 per cent drop in total volume in H1 according to separate research*, as the industry remains constrained by Eurozone volatility.