corporate finance


HMT celebrates 25 years of corporate finance success


In 2017 HMT celebrates its 25th anniversary which makes it the longest established independent advisory practice in the Thames Valley leading deals and advising ambitious entrepreneurs


HMT was founded in 1992 by Andrew Thomson and two other colleagues coming out of one of the Big four firms and based in Henley-on-Thames. Since then, HMT has become the leading transactional firm in the Thames Valley advising hundreds of entrepreneurial businesses and opening an office in London.


In completing over 600 deals with an aggregate value in excess of £5 billion, HMT has advised on significant transactions in the region including the disposal of leading provider of corporate entertainment Keith Prowse,


the MBO of Whistl, the sale of the biggest online parenthood community Netmums, the investment in Property Software Group by LDC which has recently been sold to Zoopla, the £100m-plus disposal of Swift Resources, various acquisition and fundraisings for the leading mobile phone recycling group, Redeem, and the MBO of market-leading executive chauffeur business Tristar.


The past 25 years have seen HMT grow its service offering adding tax advisory, debt advisory and financial modelling to its core corporate


finance and due diligence services allowing it to provide a fully integrated transactional advisory service for entrepreneurial businesses.


HMT has been recognised by its peers as leaders in deal- making many times over the past 25 years, winning at the Thames Valley Deal Awards every year since its inception. In 2017 it was recognised in two categories, winning Due Diligence Team of the Year and Deal of the Year for the investment in Channel Mum by NVM and partners Ian Barton and Andrew Thomson have been serial category winners over several years.


Andrew Thomson, founding partner at HMT commented: “Such sustained success is a real achievement for an independent advisory firm and we are proud to be the


Slowdown in economic growth will see employment falling


The UK labour market is set to face a rockier period over the next few years with unemployment rising as the consequences of a slowdown in economic growth, and pay growth remaining subdued, according to the EY ITEM Club special report on the labour market.


While economic activity has held up better than expected since last summer, there are signs, particularly in the consumer sector, that the pace of expansion is slowing.


According to the EY ITEM Club this will feed into weaker demand for workers resulting in employment falling for the first time since 2009. Having risen by 1.4% in 2016, the report says that the number of people in work is set to increase by a modest 0.6% this


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year, before shrinking 0.1% in 2018.


However, the report argues that the consequences of an ageing population and lower levels of immigration for the supply of workers will cushion the impact of softer labour demand on the unemployment rate.


Overall, growth in the economically-active population is forecast to slow from 0.9% to 0.4% this year. As a result, the EY ITEM Club expects the unemployment rate to rise from 4.8% this year to 5.4% in 2018 and 5.8% the following year.


Martin Beck, senior


economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, commented: “The UK labour market may


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2017


be starting to become a victim of its own success. As the proportion of people in work has climbed ever higher, firms may have found it more difficult to fill vacancies, resulting in greater utilisation of the existing workforce and slower jobs growth.


“On a positive note, slower growth in the workforce may deliver a boost to what has been a long period of insipid productivity growth. With the flow of potential workers slowing, firms are likely to have more incentive to invest in improving efficiency or labour-saving technology.”


longest established and most active practice in the Thames Valley. Those 25 years have sometimes been challenging as we have gone through various economic cycles but throughout we managed to build a strong business. We would like to thank all our clients, staff and the wider business community for their continuous support along the years as we look forward to continuing to be a key part of the vibrant Thames Valley business community.”


hmtllp.com


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