Newsletter – 2024 Annual Review

January 17, 2025

Welcome!

Most of 2024 saw the continuation of tough market conditions throughout the sector with M&A deal volume and private equity activity very much reduced. After six months we saw a significant improvement but experienced a strong second half year, particularly the final quarter. We completed three sale side transactions and won four new clients. Our team of IT sector M&A practitioners grew in both the UK and USA with three new additions. We inaugurated a series of Breakfast events and have begun using AI to improve the business and serve our clients better.

Projects completed

We first performed an advisory assignment for a UK MSP followed, in July, by completing the sale of our Canadian client SIC Biometrics, a leader in the design, manufacture and deployment of multi-modal, mobile biometric solutions, to DNA Partners.

November saw a further two sale mandates completed. The first was Infoshare, a specialist in data quality, master data management, and data governance, to private equity firm, Omni Partners who will be growing the business including making further acquisitions.

This was followed by the sale of TMI Systems, developer of Verto, the market-leading UK-based project and programme management platform, to ScaleUp Capital.

In mid-December the shareholders of our client HDUK, an MSP focussed on providing services to SMEs with a very strong presence in the accountancy sector, agreed to sell the company to Your.Cloud.

New mandates

We continue to work on, mandates which have been supplemented by several new wins including:

  • A UK buy side private equity client wishing to acquire vertical software businesses in the UK and Ireland;
  • The sale of a leading testing solutions and services company;
  • A buy side mandate for a compliance and regulatory solutions business wishing to acquire in both the UK and North America;
  • An mandate for a client seeking to acquire software companies serving the public sector market.

Furthermore we enter the new year expecting to win further mandates, on both the buy and sell side, commencing in January.

Our Transaction Team continues to expand

This year we announced three additions to our team, two based in the UK and one in the USA. Tim Porter and Graeme Millar join the UK team. Both are highly experienced sector specialists and increase our range and depth. Tim has built a portfolio of vertical market software businesses in the transport sector acquiring ten businesses in the UK, France, Australia and the US. Graeme has spent thirty years in the telecoms and technology sector with twenty-five years at board level including fourteen as CEO.

Dennis White joined our North American operation and is based in Texas. Dennis brings more than 35 years operational and business development leadership experience in the enterprise software industry. He has a broad knowledge of many IT segments including Public Sector, Public Safety, DoD, Manufacturing and Distribution

Events

We decided to begin a regular series of roundtable breakfast events directed at Chairpersons, CEOs, MDs and other senior executives. Jeffrey Jenner and Nick Sonigra hosted the first which was held in London in November and focussed on issues facing the Cloud Services Providers, principally but not exclusively, MSPs. This was so well received that we have arranged a second similar event for March.

In due course we shall be arranging others such events covering other subjects and some will be held outside London.

Coming up, in March 2025, we are holding having another full Breakfast seminar at the Soho Hotel and we have five top quality speakers presenting on the subject of exiting a Software business. More on this soon.

The Outlook

We are experiencing an improvement in market conditions as our own recent success confirms. We see deal volume increasing across the IT sector. We notice a trend for Private Equity to acquire small companies and then grow them by acquisition. This will continue and drive volume and valuations for smaller IT companies. The definitive UK election result delivers stability and that will allow businesses to plan with greater certainty. Most companies are predicting lower economic growth and that too will drive the need for making acquisitions.

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