And so we come to our final seasonal message this year, HMT of Christmas Future. Having shared some of our highlights from the last 28 years, then briefly looked at the strange times in which we find ourselves, we wanted to conclude by giving you a glimpse into some of our plans for 2021 and beyond.
Whilst we are anticipating a short-term slow-down in deal activity after the March budget, our strategy for 2021 and beyond has been shaped by our resilience demonstrated during the challenges of 2020 and our belief that longer term transaction activity will remain high. The availability of both capital and debt, as well as an appetite for many sectors to consolidate, both for defensive and opportunistic reasons, will continue to fuel transaction activity. We also believe that London, the Thames Valley and the South of England will remain a key region for corporate finance activity, and that the boutique model will best serve the lower-mid market.
We therefore remain committed to the lower mid-market in the region but with aspirations to grow both our local presence and cross-border capabilities whilst continuing to offer a genuine partner led delivery.
We are therefore really excited to be able to announce that Wendy Hart will be joining HMT as a Corporate Finance Partner. We are delighted that HMT has got an “H” back, and that we are able to attract someone of Wendy’s calibre. We now have three Corporate Finance and one Transaction Support Partner all supporting entrepreneurial businesses in the region.
Wendy has been a Partner at GT for over 20 years and led their Corporate Finance practice in the Thames Valley, covering offices in Oxford, Southampton and Reading. She was voted Corporate Finance Advisor of the Year at the Thames Valley Deal Awards for 2020. She has particularly strong sell-side credentials with an extensive network of corporate relationships, and will strengthen our expertise in this area.
The Partners are supported by a high-calibre professional team almost exclusively from international accountancy practices or investment banks, and a number of new hires will be announced early next year to support the enlarged Partner group, together with a major refurbishment of our Henley office.
We have been working closely with our colleagues in our international network, ICFG, and this will remain a strong focus for 2021 in a post Brexit world. ICFG is now represented in 24 key international commercial hubs and continues to grow. Cross-border collaborations across the group will continue to increase, and a number of specialist sector groups have been formed including logistics, healthcare and energy/cleantech. This is a powerful resource that we will be able to draw on to support our deal activity in these areas.
Finally, HMT will continue its efforts to support the local community in Henley-On-Thames next year with our Charity Cycling Event taking place in January. We will again be raising funds for our chosen charity, The Chiltern Centre, with every HMT person committing to cycle a minimum of 100 miles over the course of the month! We will be looking for sponsorship and our JustGiving page will be shared with you all in the New Year.
We have enjoyed sharing our Past, Present and Future news with you in our series of seasonal features. We would like to take this opportunity for the whole team at HMT to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. As always, we thank you for your continuous support and we look forward to working with you in 2021.
And so we come to our final seasonal message this year, HMT of Christmas Future. Having shared some of our highlights from the last 28 years, then briefly looked at the strange times in which we find ourselves, we wanted to conclude by giving you a glimpse into some of our plans for 2021 and beyond.
Whilst we are anticipating a short-term slow-down in deal activity after the March budget, our strategy for 2021 and beyond has been shaped by our resilience demonstrated during the challenges of 2020 and our belief that longer term transaction activity will remain high. The availability of both capital and debt, as well as an appetite for many sectors to consolidate, both for defensive and opportunistic reasons, will continue to fuel transaction activity. We also believe that London, the Thames Valley and the South of England will remain a key region for corporate finance activity, and that the boutique model will best serve the lower-mid market.
We therefore remain committed to the lower mid-market in the region but with aspirations to grow both our local presence and cross-border capabilities whilst continuing to offer a genuine partner led delivery.
We are therefore really excited to be able to announce that Wendy Hart will be joining HMT as a Corporate Finance Partner. We are delighted that HMT has got an “H” back, and that we are able to attract someone of Wendy’s calibre. We now have three Corporate Finance and one Transaction Support Partner all supporting entrepreneurial businesses in the region.
Wendy has been a Partner at GT for over 20 years and led their Corporate Finance practice in the Thames Valley, covering offices in Oxford, Southampton and Reading. She was voted Corporate Finance Advisor of the Year at the Thames Valley Deal Awards for 2020. She has particularly strong sell-side credentials with an extensive network of corporate relationships, and will strengthen our expertise in this area.
The Partners are supported by a high-calibre professional team almost exclusively from international accountancy practices or investment banks, and a number of new hires will be announced early next year to support the enlarged Partner group, together with a major refurbishment of our Henley office.
We have been working closely with our colleagues in our international network, ICFG, and this will remain a strong focus for 2021 in a post Brexit world. ICFG is now represented in 24 key international commercial hubs and continues to grow. Cross-border collaborations across the group will continue to increase, and a number of specialist sector groups have been formed including logistics, healthcare and energy/cleantech. This is a powerful resource that we will be able to draw on to support our deal activity in these areas.
Finally, HMT will continue its efforts to support the local community in Henley-On-Thames next year with our Charity Cycling Event taking place in January. We will again be raising funds for our chosen charity, The Chiltern Centre, with every HMT person committing to cycle a minimum of 100 miles over the course of the month! We will be looking for sponsorship and our JustGiving page will be shared with you all in the New Year.
We have enjoyed sharing our Past, Present and Future news with you in our series of seasonal features. We would like to take this opportunity for the whole team at HMT to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. As always, we thank you for your continuous support and we look forward to working with you in 2021.
Welcome to the second in our series of seasonal features, HMT of Christmas Present. Having shared some of our highlights from the last 28 years, we are now taking a brief look at 2020 and the unforgettable year it has been.
As the longest established corporate finance boutique in the Thames Valley, we have advised entrepreneurial businesses throughout a number of economic cycles but 2020 was to be like none other. As COVID hit the world in January, and the UK went into lockdown in March, many businesses had to pause or abandon their M&A aspirations and quickly switch into survival mode. The focus moved to both fundraising and looking at ways of re-engineering their business model to try and flourish in a lock-down and post lock-down world.
It was incredibly rewarding that in addition to utilising our corporate finance expertise, we were able to draw on the restructuring and debt advisory skills within the team to support so many businesses through these difficult times.
Whilst sadly many more businesses will fail as government initiatives are eased, it has been remarkable how quickly M&A activity has returned. There is a wall of institutional money available, particularly private equity and debt funds. Over the last few years these funds have typically focused on B2B technology enabled businesses and, with these same businesses proving themselves COVID resilient, deal activity was buoyant in the second half of 2020. This has also been compounded with a rush to complete transactions before the threatened hike in capital gains tax rates from early next year.
Despite deal activity returning, it has certainly not been business as usual. We have focused on a number of new sectors such as e-commerce fulfilment, learned to transact largely remotely and have had to secure innovative debt solutions due to the limited availability of many of the traditional sources of capital. Key HMT transactions in 2020 include the PE investments into James and James and Aker Systems as well as the MBO of Envitia.
The corporate finance eco-system is both strong and well-funded and, despite the challenges of 2020, we have been able to grow our team and will round the year off with a record number of completions in our 28 year history for a single month. We have completed 7 transactions so far this month including the MBO of Envitia, the VC Investment in Piclo and the acquisition of Clientbase Fulfilment Ltd by Whistl. In addition, we hope to announce a further two transactions later in December.
We are however well aware that many parts of the economy are suffering, and we will continue to support companies negatively affected by the current pandemic where we can.
We would like to thank you all for your continuous support and contribution to an exceptional year for HMT. We go into 2021 with not only a strong pipeline of transaction opportunities but some exciting team news which we will share with you in our next feature, HMT of Christmas Future!
Welcome to the second in our series of seasonal features, HMT of Christmas Present. Having shared some of our highlights from the last 28 years, we are now taking a brief look at 2020 and the unforgettable year it has been.
As the longest established corporate finance boutique in the Thames Valley, we have advised entrepreneurial businesses throughout a number of economic cycles but 2020 was to be like none other. As COVID hit the world in January, and the UK went into lockdown in March, many businesses had to pause or abandon their M&A aspirations and quickly switch into survival mode. The focus moved to both fundraising and looking at ways of re-engineering their business model to try and flourish in a lock-down and post lock-down world.
It was incredibly rewarding that in addition to utilising our corporate finance expertise, we were able to draw on the restructuring and debt advisory skills within the team to support so many businesses through these difficult times.
Whilst sadly many more businesses will fail as government initiatives are eased, it has been remarkable how quickly M&A activity has returned. There is a wall of institutional money available, particularly private equity and debt funds. Over the last few years these funds have typically focused on B2B technology enabled businesses and, with these same businesses proving themselves COVID resilient, deal activity was buoyant in the second half of 2020. This has also been compounded with a rush to complete transactions before the threatened hike in capital gains tax rates from early next year.
Despite deal activity returning, it has certainly not been business as usual. We have focused on a number of new sectors such as e-commerce fulfilment, learned to transact largely remotely and have had to secure innovative debt solutions due to the limited availability of many of the traditional sources of capital. Key HMT transactions in 2020 include the PE investments into James and James and Aker Systems as well as the MBO of Envitia.
The corporate finance eco-system is both strong and well-funded and, despite the challenges of 2020, we have been able to grow our team and will round the year off with a record number of completions in our 28 year history for a single month. We have completed 7 transactions so far this month including the MBO of Envitia, the VC Investment in Piclo and the acquisition of Clientbase Fulfilment Ltd by Whistl. In addition, we hope to announce a further two transactions later in December.
We are however well aware that many parts of the economy are suffering, and we will continue to support companies negatively affected by the current pandemic where we can.
We would like to thank you all for your continuous support and contribution to an exceptional year for HMT. We go into 2021 with not only a strong pipeline of transaction opportunities but some exciting team news which we will share with you in our next feature, HMT of Christmas Future!
