Steve Walsh

Ian Mawdsley, Chief Product Officer of Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions, spoke at tradetech and highlighted challenges the capital markets firm face when considering buy VS build approach. It is time to move from the 'buy OR build' cycle that the market has been in for the last 30 years into the ‘buy AND build’ cycle. Read the latest article by Ian: http://spklr.io/6047ovF9 #TradeTech #CapitalMarkets

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“Money doesnt recognise geography” This is a session hosted by national and international #investors at #climb24 We have over 200 investors from all over the world coming to find great businesses to invest in - and none of them care where they are based I am never going to complain about more money being invested in the region but #founders need to get their businesses in a shape to compete for investment on a national and international level The UK is the 3rd largest country for VC so we do have money on our doorstep Equally with our partners Department for Business and Trade we will be talking about how both funds and businesses can access international investment The challenge i think is that often businesses in the north just dont know what is available and how to access it Join us at climb24 on 5th and 6th june to lean - honestly everything you need is on your doorstep!!! And a ticket is less than the price of a train to london and a hell if a lot more fun !!!! UBS British Business Bank Innovate UK Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Department for Business and Trade VeUP Barclays Eagle Labs Squire Patton Boggs Lloyds Banking Group Mishcon de Reya LLP West Yorkshire Combined Authority Leeds City Council South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Nexus Leeds Leeds Digital Bobble AI Bionow GreenTech Gathering EHE Ventures Sure Valley Ventures Balderton Capital Beringea Eka Ventures Redrice Ventures Newlab Fuel Ventures 🚀 IQ Capital Albion Capital Group LLP YFM Equity Partners Foresight Group Equity Gap Par Equity River Capital Development Bank of Wales Oxx MERCIA INVESTMENTS LIMITED Maven Capital Partners Teampact.ventures Start Codon

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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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Swap Clearing: Who better to do it than the ex-Lehman guys: https://lnkd.in/eeDDnJmN They made the call to LCH in 2009 - who better to do it again?

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Behind the Idea: Sidekick In this week's Behind the Idea, we learn all about UK wealthtech Sidekick, finding out about its offering, aims, challenges and achievements. Read More: https://lnkd.in/e6ZM-y6N

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https://lnkd.in/eY3-AmYM will MoF walk the walk!?.. #JPY strength to play through opts. A very decent chunk of 5s and 7s UST auctions coming up, #SPX500 nearly achieved ideal correction level 4800-4900 range, mega cap earnings and PCE coming up - #highfrolonger still in play, core inflation could actually end up closer to 4.5% towards q3 2024.. QQQ ideal correction more towards 16K, the growth vs value rotation only just started #assetmanagement #qualitybalancesheets

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Railsr, a UK-based provider of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions, has approached Equals Group, a London-listed payments firm, for a potential merger. This move is seen as a strategic effort to combine their financial technology services and expand their offerings. Railsr specialises in solutions like card issuing and virtual wallets, catering to the growing demand for embedded finance, while Equals Group focuses on secure, scalable payment platforms for businesses. This merger would allow both companies to leverage each other's expertise and better meet market demands.

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One of the side effects of fast business growth in the wealth management and investment worlds can be proliferation of clunky manual processes and messy spreadsheets that’s are only navigable by the one person who created them… I know you know what I’m talking about 👀 We built Ada to help ourselves on this front… to manage our whole research process centrally and consistently. Then our clients started asking for their own version! That was cool 👌 If you’re interested in what it does, Alan and Sam give you the low down on Ada in this video.. def worth a watch

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The Finanser’s Week: 3rd June – 9th June 2024 - This week’s main blog discussions include … What’s hot and what’s not in fintech? In a long strategy session yesterday, we were trying to list the things that are hot and what’s not in fintech. So, what’s hot? Obviously crypto and AI. However, those are the headline buckets, what’s the detail? The https://lnkd.in/ebThzR_m

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Whoever wins the General Election, capital markets and investment are going to be key to delivering their priorities given little capacity in the public purse. Investment companies are the proven bridge between investors and assets such as infrastructure and renewable energy and they can play a critical role in helping the next government achieve its ambitions for economic growth. Beyond that, as a nation, we need to save and invest more, drive better returns in our pension funds and direct more of that capital towards our domestic markets (the UK ISA was one such initiative). Investment companies are a ready made, proven (over 150 years!) solution to these challenges.

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#AVCT Christina Coughlin who was appointed only 2 months ago as Avacta CEO, is certainly wasting no time. Today announcing a series of key management changes, alongside a positive trading update. In terms of personnel, a new Scientific Advisory Board has been created in order to guide AVA6000, the preCISION platform and #AVCT’s overall drug development strategy. Additionally Darlene Deptula-Hicks, an “entrepreneurial financial leader” has joined as a non-exec, whilst long term CFO Tony Gardiner steps down from the Board. With regards to the clinic, the fortnightly dosing regime (Arm 2) for Cohort 2 of the AVA6000 Phase 1 trial has now been successfully completed. 2 patients have also begun cohort 3, without any dose limiting toxicities being observed. Here Avacta importantly remains on track to achieve its stated objectives for H2’24 including the initiation of the expansion cohorts and providing an update of the clinical data. Arm 2 of the trial is designed to help determine an optimum dosing regime for a future Phase 2 study. Elsewhere, the Board continues to assess various strategic options for its diagnostics division, which may include a sale. The idea being to not only focus more on its Precision platform, and in particular taking its lead candidate AVA6000 through to commercialisation. But also create a pure-play oncology biopharma firm that will be more attractive to specialist biotech investors. Nonetheless, the diagnostics division is increasing revenues, further expanding in Germany and is on track to become EBITDA positive in H2’24. Coris’ products are being X-sold through Launch Diagnostics, whilst the Affimer screening technology has been transferred to Belgium. In turn, enabling #AVCT's laboratory in Wetherby to be closed, whilst equally realising operational cost savings. Lastly YTD trading is said to be “in-line with market forecasts" with gross cash ending May’24 at around £35m. Providing sufficient funds to progress AVA6000 into Phase 2 clinical trials and develop Avacta’s wider pipeline of innovative new medicines. Christina Coughlin commenting: "The ongoing trial of AVA6000 is progressing well and remains on track to achieve our stated goals of initiating the expansion cohorts, updating the clinical data for AVA6000 and detailing our pipeline of innovative new medicines. We are also continuing to strengthen the Board with a new Chair and the appointment of a Non-Exec. These combined changes support our growing confidence that we have the right team and plan in place for this extraordinary science."   Chair Shaun Chilton adding: "I'd also like to thank Tony Gardiner for his commitment and service as CFO of Avacta. We're grateful that Tony will remain on an interim basis." Disclosure: Avacta are a Vox Markets client.

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Great article. Love that an increasing number of Canadians recognize the importance of financial advice delivered by a certified professional. The existence of waiting lists implies two things: 1. We need more CFP/QAFPs 2. CFP/QAFPs could benefit from better tools to improve efficiency, allowing them to service more clients. Particularly data management, which is a notorious time sink.

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You know an industry issue is big when mainstream papers start to write about it... - A significant shortage of exciting UK tech companies listing on the London Stock Exchange. Not surprising given... - Underperformance of Recent IPOs: Half of the top 20 IPOs in 2023 underperformed compared to the Stoxx Europe 600 index, with some companies like CAB Payments experiencing significant share price declines. - Regulatory Concerns: Founders and venture capitalists are hesitant about pursuing acquisitions due to increased scrutiny by competition watchdogs. - Post-Election IPO Surge Expected: According to PitchBook, IPO activity in Europe is predicted to increase considerably after upcoming elections, with 300 companies potentially ready to float, nearly a third from the UK. - Market Valuations Caution: The financial climate suggests 2024 might still be premature for many companies to go public, given uncertain valuations and economic conditions. - Brain Drain to the US: There's an ongoing trend of European companies, including notable names like Arm and Birkenstock, choosing to list in the US due to better returns compared to Europe. - Dissatisfaction with London Listings: Some British tech companies that listed in London express regret, citing issues like lack of knowledge, liquidity, and negative media coverage. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gFpN4hRD #thrivetogether #liquidity #secondaries

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Equity Raising So often the ability for SMEs to float and raise a war chest to facilitate acquisitions is overlooked. Great celebration of AIM by the LSEG today and a positive way to kick off the weekend. 👏 (We should not forget Aquis too!!) #LSEG #Aquis #AIM #businessacquisitions #businessfinance Charting AIM’s positive economic impact | Issuer Services | LSEG (lsegissuerservices.com)

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There was a great feature in the FT this week on Zopa’s successful growth - https://lnkd.in/efcSCrVc - and I thought this would be a good moment to share more about my time there as a consultant recently.  What started out as a short project in January with the CSO and CEO of Zopa, I’m happy to say has turned into a 6-month stint across several areas covering vision, marketing and product-related topics, as the company readies itself for an IPO. I’ve met a great leader in Merve Arslan Ferrero and I've loved working with Clare Gambardella again from my Wolff Olins and Virgin Active days. Zopa started out in peer-to-peer lending in 2005, but relaunched as a fully-fledged digital bank in 2020, and they have been picking up momentum since then. They’ve just announced their first full year of profitability; have over 1+ million customers with a 30% customer growth rate; and a strong NPS record too. At 800 Zopians strong and +£220m revenue they are at a tipping point in their maturity, and I’ve been energised by the strategic challenges this throws up. It’s been great for me to learn about a new sector and adapt to a new organisation in a high-energy, pre-IPO moment. Fintech feels like a natural extension from proptech, given the useful role these brands play in people’s lives combined with the shared importance of data. With their new announcement of their upcoming current account launch, my focus is now shifting more to their new products, which should be a lot of fun.

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The Future of Payments review found the UK is at risk of falling behind on payments globally if we don’t reinvest in and coordinate our national infrastructure - the ‘rails’ on which payments flow. We welcome the Bank of England’s leadership on this and have set out some core principles to guide the private-public cooperation that is needed. #payments #infrastructure

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Week 22: After a tougher week for fixed income RM Funds see excellent opportunities within credit to exploit after the weakness seen post UK CPI within UK credit and fixed income. The back up in yields is now offering tremendous value for money: 5 year yields touched 3.4% on 27th Dec and at one point last week touched 4.3%. We (still)do not believe we see the wides of last year/Overall in credit we (still) favour the front end with 1 year IG offering circa 5.4% and we are u/w longer dated A & BBB credit which is offering 80-130bp over gilts. Spreads have begun to widen over recent weeks, RM Funds suspect this will continue over the coming months. Sector positive: Natgrid rights issue shows the defensive nature and size of the assets the SVS RM Infrastructure bond allocates into.

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📢 The Magnificent 7 Fund Providers... The UK UT and OEIC universe is currently valued at £1.8trn and consists of 166 fund providers Unfortunately for most of the providers though, they don't look after an equal share of the assets... The top 7 providers account for 42% of the AUM and incredibly, 28% of the £1.8trn, is owned by the big 3 (Blackrock, SJP and Vanguard) 🤯 #financialadviser #financialplanning #financialdata #magnificentseven

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It was great to talk recently with Amanda Cheesley at WealthBriefing about how #AI has the potential to revolutionise #wealthmanagement and help human advisers and wealth managers deliver better outcomes for #clients. Click the link to read more 👇 https://lnkd.in/eg5kWuw3 #advicematters #assetmanagement #capitalmarkets #fis

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