THAMES VALLEY & SOLENT DEALS AWARDS2012 Celebrating a great deal of success


The cream of the region’s dealmaking business community joined forces to take centre stage at the Thames Valley & Solent Deals Awards 2012 event on April 26.


The evening – recognised as the premier regional awards night for the corporate finance community – attracted 370 guests from 75 firms, including banks and business advisers, to private equity firms, law firms, accountants and management teams.


With well over 300 entries vying for success, nominations came in from far and wide across the patch, from Reading, Oxford and Camberley, through to Southampton, Andover and Winchester.


The event, held at Oakley Hall, near Basingstoke, was organised by The Business Magazine, and publisher David Murray started proceedings with a brief overview of the economic climate, acknowledging that the past 12 months had been “very patchy” for the dealmaking community.


Referencing figures provided by Ian Barton and the Deloitte team in Reading, he revealed that across Thames Valley and the Solent areas, M&A numbers had fallen by some 16% in the past year, while the average deal size has reduced substantially from an average of £113m in 2010, to just under £53m in 2011.


In line with national figures, he said, it is the lower mid-market deals which are holding up more strongly at a local level.


Setting a more encouraging tone for 2012, Murray said: “Although this year, locally, the deal scene got off to a very slow start, there are signs of optimism. Advisers tell us that there is more activity, even if it is not always translating into completed deals.


“Good prices can be had for great businesses – and of course many corporates are sitting on a pile of cash and hopefully more of that will be used to acquire businesses over the next 12 months.”


Turning to the awards, Murray said this year’s judges had faced a difficult task in sifting through the raft of nominations, using their knowledge and understanding of the market to identify shortlisted nominations and eventual winners.


And he paid special thanks to the sponsors of each of the awards before introducing the host for the night, comedian, writer and TV regular Dominic Holland, who has proved a popular choice in the past, compering previous awards evenings in Gatwick and Southampton.


There was also a plea to guests to dig deep for the night’s charity table collection, which by the end of the evening had raised a terrific £3,830 for Brain Tumour Research.


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