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Doing the Deal: LONDON

This winter has seen the start of our Doing the Deal series of events.  We kicked it off with an Angel Investing Workshop with Galvanise and Kingston Smith supporting some insight delivered by Stuart Hendry, our Senior Partner.  Galvanise is a nation-wide angel syndicate whose focus is on angel investments, and along with Kingston Smith and MBM, we had a great panel of experts in this field.

Angel Investment in UK businesses is estimated to be in the region of £1.5bn per year and is fundamental to the UK being one of the places where high growth business attract the most support.  We don’t see that changing, in spite of the current political uncertainty.  In fact, much of the support given to early stage businesses arises from domestic legislation (think EIS, EMI schemes etc), rather than from the EU.  The extent to which state aid can be provided to early stage business is actually restricted by European Law; so whatever your view about the multiple permutations of leaving the EU (or not), we think that Angel Investment will be robust.

MBM have been active in this area for over a decade and would be happy to discuss any Angel Investments with you.

If you didn’t make it to the Angel Investment Workshop, our next event is on 23 January 2019 and is entitled ‘Raising Debt for Growth’.  We are lucky to have speakers from Silicon Valley Bank and Nash & Co Capital, as well as Michael Arnott who heads up our London office.

Debt is often seen as a preferable source of finance for high growth businesses. Founders are often reluctant to part with equity at a valuation which reflects their beliefs about the future of their business.  Investors tend to want to share in the equity upside but are very happy to be insulated from the risk of failure.  The decision to fund your business is no longer bipolar – we see a range of equity instruments with debt-like characteristics and vice versa.  In this seminar we will look at pure debt investment and then take a look at how investors are lending in ways that seek to reserve some of the equity upside in a way that pure debt providers do not.  We look at this both from the perspective of the lenders and the borrowers.  We will also look at the provision of security for debt and how that can enhance the lending on both sides.

If you are interested in attending the above event then please contact Rebecca Miles at Rebecca.miles@mbmcommercial.co.uk to book your place.

The London Office of MBM continues to grow and we are always on the look-out for talented lawyers to strengthen our ranks – if you know anyone who you think would be a suitable addition to the team, please ask them to email Michael Arnott at Michael.Arnott@MBMCommercial.co.uk in confidence. Michael is a Partner and heads up MBM Commercial's London office.

 

 

 

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