A number of commentators and advisers involved in corporate finance/M&A are starting to point to an increase in corporate transaction volumes. 

I am very pleased to announce that a longstanding Mercer & Hole client – Pioneer Productions – was sold to the Welsh television production company Tinopolis. It is the one of the few ‘significant’ successfully completed deals that I have been involved in 2009. As with any transaction of this size there are many obstacles along the way, but in 2009 it takes additional motivation and perseverance to get over the finishing line.

The tentative recovery in the SME transactions market is a reflection of several factors:

• confidence has steadily improved throughout 2009, helped by buoyant stock markets, avoidance of a ‘banking armageddon’ and fewer bad news stories
• a gradual reduction in the disparity between buyer expectations (who were after rock bottom prices) and seller expectations (who were still thinking of 2007 multiples)
• some improvements in liquidity in the small to medium business sector
• necessity – companies which are approaching failure can be forced to sell all or part of their business.

So it seems likely that 2010 will bring a rise in the transaction volumes seen in 2009.

Julian Dobbin is a partner at Mercer & Hole. The views given in this blog are personal to the author, if you would like to discuss the contents of this blog with Julian you can call him on 01908 605552.

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This scheme will support bank lending, of 3 months to 10 year maturity, to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £25 million who are not able to access the finance they need. It will provide loans of between £1,000 and £1 million and is currently available until March 2010.

The guarantee can support new loans, refinance existing debt, or conversions of existing overdrafts into loans to release capacity to meet working capital requirements.

It is a very flexible tool in comparison to the previous scheme – the parameters in size have been widened significantly, and an interesting new feature is the flexibility to use the EFG in 'share' transactions.

Only time will tell whether the EFG will be a success. The decisions to lend are delegated to the banks, who will apply their own criteria. However it appears to be a step in the right direction, and I for one hope that the EFG scheme will provide a lifeline for the many viable, but cashflow pressurised, SME’s in the UK.

See guidance from Business Link by clicking here.

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