Roderick Martin

Excellent analysis that speaks to the need for regulators to shift their focus away from price and number of networks and instead look towards the value delivered to customers and economies from having robust and well invested networks capable of carrying and nurturing new services and products.

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Thanks Leonard Ng from Sidley Austin LLP for sharing this update on the current UK/EU regulatory landscape. An insightful read covering important topics & regulations impacting the investment management world. https://lnkd.in/dq2UE7CZ

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Reduce waiting lists. These three words are certain to appear in multiple election manifestos – however, often the detail is lacking in terms of how we can make it happen. I believe the key to reducing the strain and burden on our NHS is tech. Digital solutions enable us to: 1. Prevent disease to reduce demand. Tech can empower people to make changes to live happier, healthier lives, and enables early diagnosis (increasing through AI). 2. Be more efficient when demand is present. Tech is central to this, and solutions are most effective when devolved to local decision-making, where the needs of the community are more closely understood. I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on what the detail behind the promises from our prospective governments needs to be.

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A flurry of UK regtechs being acquired in M&A raises questions for legal + property firms; - Service quality: better / worse? - Rate of innovation: accelerate / slow? - Product cost to value prop: ‘good value’ / ‘expensive’? - Lift and shift of platforms over coming years; focus / distract from serving you? How do the answers to these questions impact your business? Expect us to remain fiercely independent. #M&A #Independent #Build

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💂‍♂️ 💂‍♀️ #UKEQUITIES - some numbers. 🛎 At #investec, looking at the FTSE 350 index - take out the investment trusts and we have 264 London listed firms in that index. In the last 6 months, on total return, 10 of those 264 firms lost a holder >21.0%... contrast that with 107! of the 264 firms making you >21.0%. Those 107 >21% return firms/big winners had real breadth - Aerospace, Builders, Cap Goods, Distributors, Energy, Financials... the sector winner list goes on. After that 6m index rally (total rtn) of 16.04%, the Bloomberg multiple is 12x after tax profits on the underlying. It #feelsdifferent in London. #Privatefirms looking to list - please get in touch / meet the team. #Investors that have not looked at London for a while - please get in touch. #Londonlisted firms that want to get more out of their listing - we're here. #investec is in good shape and our door is very much open for business. Call me - 00 44 207 597 5577 Email me - [email protected] Data c/o #Bloomberg. Absolutely not investment advice.

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Platform tech giant FNZ has agreed to an FCA new business restriction, Citywire New Model Adviser can reveal. The FCA said this restriction includes any deal with a third party which would involve a migration of assets onto the FNZ platform. Victoria Bell ✍ #FNZ #FCA https://lnkd.in/ex4d85Gg

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Our CEO Mike Carrodus, spoke with Financial News, about our survey of the largest Asset Managers, following the FCA’s latest Consultation Paper on Payment Optionality for investment research. We found opinions split on whether the industry would ‘rebundle’ investment research costs with execution fees, or continue to fund research from their own P&Ls, with many firms waiting to gauge the impact on early adopters before making a decision. Read the full article here ➡ https://lnkd.in/e4d6ETbH #MiFIDII #FCA #InvestmentResearch

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New Deal Alert! Congratulations to all parties involved! Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, this deal highlights Equiteq's expertise in the knowledge economy, particularly in the recovery management space. If you’re interested in learning more, we’d be delighted to provide insights on this deal or others. Feel free to get in touch! Stay tuned—more successes are on the horizon, with several recently closed deals yet to be announced! #DealSuccess #Equiteq #KnowledgeEconomy #RecoveryManagement #MergersAndAcquisitions #Expertise #PrivateEquity

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Do not debtonate? Banks are the main targets here. But private lending, which has blossomed recently and is expected to account for around a third of the leveraged loan market, is also coming under fire. The next wave of refinancing and the potential resurgence of deal activity will mean even closer scrutiny? LPs' appetite for this asset class appears to remain positive 

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Thanks to Paul Clarke Financial News for running an article featuring Continuum Advisory Partners' vision and growth journey. Since our founding less than two years ago, we've grown to a team of close to 40, with ambitious plans to expand across London, Europe and the USA. Our focus remains clear: delivering independent, relationship-driven advice in the financial services sector, including insurance, wealth management, financial technology and professional services. We're taking a different approach from traditional boutiques. Our model, inspired by the classic merchant banks, emphasises long-term relationships and trust over transactional dealings. Sometimes the best advice is to not do a deal at all. As I say in the article, "We're going back to the future" with our culture centred on teamwork and trust. We're proud that 21 of our current team members have worked together for over a decade across multiple organisations. We're growing thoughtfully, focusing on individuals who share our values and vision for client service. We're excited about our future as we continue building our unique financial services mid-market advisory firm. #InvestmentBanking #FinancialServices #MandA #Growth #Leadership Find the link to the article in the first comment below.

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The recent announcement from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) marks a pivotal moment for UK businesses and investors. The renewed focus on targeting “truly problematic mergers” is a significant step toward fostering economic growth and maintaining a competitive edge.   As Sarah Cardell rightly noted at the Chatham House Competition Policy Conference, the UK must be a place where businesses feel confident to invest, innovate, and scale. Ensuring mergers are evaluated with a balanced approach will undoubtedly unlock opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.   This evolution in regulatory strategy is a positive signal for the markets. It aligns with the government’s vision of growth-oriented regulation, hopefully making the UK a more attractive place to do business. I’m optimistic about the road ahead and the potential this framework offers. With today's rise in consumer confidence adding to the more positive economic mix, things are looking up for 2025. https://lnkd.in/d_wv2bgD #BusinessGrowth #UKEconomy #Regulation #Investment #ConsumerConfidence

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The reliably interesting Joachim Klement covers MiFID2 in his excellent Substack today. For a suite of regulation that cost tens of billions to implement, I have never heard one positive thing said about MiFID2. Unfortunately, Joachim doesn't buck that trend and instead points out the research showing how it has led to increased costs and reduced liquidity. Perhaps someone can explain how MiFID has improved my life. https://lnkd.in/dTVUKZqb

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What to expect when the changes proposed to research payments as part of the Kent Review recommendations are rolled out: - The price of research will remain independent of trade volumes (so not "rebundled") - Asset managers will move the cost of research payment back to asset owners (who are still paying for research for their US managers - so no great risk) - The buyside and sellside will still use interactions as the mechanism for research valuation - More research will be produced and have a positive impact on liquidity and capital markets activity in the UK, particularly as research continues to become a critical asset leveraged by banking departments to maintain relationships and drive origination opportunities - Research content, delivery and curation will continue to innovate and better integrate into decision-making (and volume will increase)

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Quilter Investors has added AllianceBernstein to its list of WealthSelect global partners following the appointment of the firm to its Equity Growth fund https://lnkd.in/eCkkdwRT #equities #fundmanagement #portfoliomanagement

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Interesting thoughts from Houlihan on Direct PE (and the maturation of the market around independent sponsors) - "global volume (will) rise from $6 billion in 2019 to an estimated $50 billion this year, with annual deal numbers tripling over that period. We’ll see over 780 transactions this year... Directs have the promise to account for half of all annual capital raised for private equity in 10–15 years." #privateequity #independentsponsors

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There's an unprecedented number of ongoing bids for FTSE 350 companies (and that's despite 5 being rejected). We are now up to nearly £100bn of market cap leaving the UK market (including departures for other markets). It is abundantly clear that we have a de-equitisation problem with 40 companies leaving the market ytd and only 3 of size joining. A lot of effort has gone into regulatory reform - we now need to address the demand side. This report looks at the latest trends. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eMBhhT5B

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Prospects for 2025... Amongst the noise, what are the themes for PE? I was part of a virtual round table for Criticaleye last week, with the task of researching and presenting the prospects for the PE industry in 2025. I spoke with 9 senior or managing partners of UK based PE firms to get as broad a view as possible. In summary, a net positive view but not overwhelmingly so, due to a number of conflicting influences. On the positive side: * Greater political and economic stability * Interest rates will be (slowly) coming down * Investment banks have full WIP lists and not laying anyone off, signalling good deal flow for the year * High levels of uninvested capital, which should drive demand for deals * Firms have held on to assets for longer than usual, which adds to the pressure for exits However, on the negative side: * Fund raising is becoming very hard for the mid-market, meaning firms are incredibly cautious about risk on new deals (they can't afford any losses), which will keep the brakes on overall investment activity * The recent budget puts huge extra costs on businesses and it will take time for companies to devise their new plans. This makes investment appraisal harder/slower * The budget will have a few likely knock-on impacts, for example: - prices will have to go up (and therefore inflation) - hiring will slow down (and so unemployment will rise) - B2B customers will defer large new purchases (so sales growth in investee companies will slow/reverse) - B2C demand will reduce with increased inflation and unemployment. Some sectors will continue to be in favour (e.g. SaaS companies, albeit at huge prices) and some will struggle to trade (e.g. retail, hospitality) but people were generally positive. One thing was clear though was that there will be no big change in deal activity and any significant growth will be towards the back end of 2025.

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Julie Palmer, Partner at Begbies Traynor, quoted in The Independent: “Despite some optimism as we entered the new year, 2024 has so far been characterised by a continuation of the same pressures that plagued companies in the UK throughout 2023. “Since the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of UK businesses depleted their financial reserves and loaded their balance sheets with increasingly unaffordable debt which for many may simply be too great to bear" The statistics unfortunately bear this out with 2023 seeing 25k CVLs's, 64k IVA's and 31k DROs (as per Insolvency Sevrice at Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) conference last week) as records for these activities (although tempered by the the fact that there are significantly more businesses - so the rate of insolvency is actually flat to down). Dean Beale at the Insolvency Service highlighted the need for the removal of manual work and the digitisation of processes, whilst naming Microsoft Dynamics implementation for the The Insolvency Service as well as other technologies, the point of bringing efficiencies to these processes is more pressing than ever - Armalytix... Bonus point for getting this far - where is this photo?

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