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It is now more than four months since the seismic shock of the Brexit vote. The honeymoon period of the summer months has passed. The debate has turned to what flavour of Brexit we might be left with and the timing of Article 50 and the level of oversight MPs should have. There remain far more imponderables than facts and this seems set to be case for some time. For those of us who negotiate for a living, this is a reality that is inevitable ...

The $26bn acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft certainly caught the eye this week.A business that is little more than 14 years old and wasn’t generating operating profits (under GAAP) selling for almost ten times revenue – that’s some deal.Yet it doesn’t take a great deal of investigation into some of the non-financial statistics to see why such an eye watering price might be justifiable:LinkedIn has 430 million members and is growing fast ...

The turn of the year is often a time for reflection and review.For business founders and owners this might be the one time of the year when the phone rings (less) and the inbox is more sparse ...

So, I confess to being old enough to remember the ‘Do You Yahoo!’ television adverts of the 1990s… A certain comb over look that was replaced by a not insubstantial afro wig, a talking dolphin – ring any bells?Regardless, for many of us Yahoo! was the place where we started our online adventures ...

In the past, if you wanted to borrow money you would go to your bank manager, or if your bank couldn’t help you, you approached business angels or institutional investors. Business owners now face a confusing and daunting range of funding options. In the digital age, the options include an ever increasing number of online platforms which flourished following the banking crisis and which seem to offer above market returns in our low interest rate economy ...

If you look at the recent changes to income tax, in particular the introduction of a 7.5% rise in the taxation of dividends (announced by George Osborne in the last budget), it is hard not to conclude that entrepreneurs are being targeted by the government ...

So, Paris in Spring was followed by New York in Fall (well, the back end of summer!) as our international network, World Services Group, gathered for its annual global conference attended by over 150 delegates from 72 countries. It would be easy to talk about the positive mood and upbeat rhetoric from speakers and delegates alike, about the state of world markets, ambitious corporates, cross-border opportunities and access to finance ...

The recent soap opera surrounding Kevin Pietersen and his off-on-off relationship with the England cricket team has dominated the sports media over recent months.There is no doubting that Pietersen is the most talented batsman available to England but, that said, for many well-rehearsed reasons (and various misdemeanours) he will not be selected ...

I have spent the last few days in Paris with our colleagues from our international network – World Services Group. With professionals from more than 30 countries worldwide, it was a great opportunity to take the temperature of global M&A. Whilst Paris in spring is never to be sniffed at, a number of very positive themes emerged ...

As January closes, it is worth reflecting on what has been a turbulent few months for UK retailers.  The travails of Tesco are well documented (and seemingly never ending), whilst Marks and Spencer must have been mightily relieved that it’s own continued decline (food excepted) was slightly overshadowed.  That’s before you add in the departure of the CEO at Morrisons and some fairly major surgery that’s underway at Sainsburys ...

This is a question we often find clients asking. For many business founders and entrepreneurs the step of recruiting a senior non customer facing individual represents a huge move. Our advice is almost always to get on; take the plunge and make that investment. Looking at the key objections that are often raised: Why do I need a score keeper? Any finance function has a role to play in reporting the past and in identifying areas for improvement ...

Recent press speculation suggests that Entrepreneurs Relief may be a victim of its own success and could be restricted or even removed. For the individual entrepreneur and for SME Britain more generally such a change would be little short of disastrous.Entrepreneurs Relief has been a key source of oxygen for our anaemic economy over recent years ...

It is a long held truth that businesses require more growth finance in times of economic recovery. Given the state of the economy on both a national and local level, now is the time to help Midlands based business owners and entrepreneurs. Recent figures from the British Bankers’ Association show that small businesses experienced a reduction in net lending in the first quarter this year, with repayments of existing debt exceeding new lending by £300 million ...

The recent winter Olympics in Sochi have been heralded as “the best ever” and certainly for Great Britain the medal table didn’t lie.  A country more suited by climate to sports on water than snow emerged with real credit.  For entrepreneurs and business owners there are some real lessons that can be taken from the British Sochi experience. Looking at the success of Lizzie Yarnold and before her Amy Williams in the skeleton is particularly informative ...

The lengthy war of words between buyer and seller that has followed Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Autonomy gives an interesting insight into the world of international M&A.  The allegations made by HP of “accounting improprieties” against the senior management team of Autonomy began soon after the completion of the deal in October 2011 and continue with the recent filing of Autonomy’s restated accounts by HP.  Revised turnover and profit of £81 ...

The proposal from the Labour Party to force banks to sell branches when they reach a certain size smacks of political opportunism as opposed to commercial and economic good sense.  Whilst any meaningful and effective initiative to increase competition and in turn lending is to be applauded it is difficult to see any value for the embattled SME owner from this latest proposal.  Indeed it is not as if government hasn’t been trying to increase lending with little success ...

The boom days of the 1990s were driven by the relentless rise of our burgeoning services sector. The conspicuous consumption of the day was fuelled by a belief that Britain was at the forefront of the post industrial revolution. The demise of UK manufacturing was little more than collateral damage. Yet wind forward to today and how different the picture looks as UK manufacturing leads us towards a long awaited recovery ...

As a worldwide asset class private equity has seen more uncertainty than most over recent years.  It is now more than four years since the calamitous collapse of the global economy and over that period private equity has continued to lack direction.  Since its pioneering days of the 1970s and 1980s and through the leverage fuelled 1990s and 2000s private equity has seen more than its fair share of spectacular successes ...

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