It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Barry Jackson, investor and head of BGF in Yorkshire and the North East.
As 2023 has demonstrated, despite the subdued nature of the market, there are still high quality deals to be done, with BGF investing in seven new Yorkshire and North East companies throughout the year.
This comes from having a confidence in the prospects of the growth economy and supporting dynamic, innovative and exciting businesses to achieve their full potential and deliver consistent returns for shareholders.
Given the level of activity we have seen in the region in 2023 – with deal volumes generally remaining relatively steady, particularly in the smaller end of the market – we are positive about the M&A market in 2024.
There are clearly a number of deciding factors still at play that will influence activity in the coming months, but we are hopeful that lowering inflation and stable interest rates will help to ease challenges and concerns.
While deal values dropped significantly in the region between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023, where there is scarcity of good deals, you tend to see a lot of competition for those businesses with best-in-class assets that still command premium prices. As such, this will impact the broader market and everybody will have to work harder to get deals done.
