While the pandemic may have replaced Brexit in the headlines, it is the combined impact of both that has been responsible for resurgent public market activity and the IPOs that have happened. In this report, Criticaleye Partner, finnCap provides a lockdown review of the growth capital markets.
Key takeaways include:
Since lockdown, there have been 802 secondary fundraisings for companies with a market capitalisation below £500m, raising a total of £5.8bn.
There were only 44 completed public takeovers from March 2020 to 2021, opposed to typically 50 per year.
In M&A, the average EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) multiple for UK deals hit an all-time high of 11.7x.
Since October 2020, 12 new listed funds were launched, raising more than £2bn. Secondary issuance has also been strong, with over 60 capital raise events for existing funds, raising over £7bn overall.
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