In focus: Praise for the local
Our Dealmakers event last Thursday night brought it home to me once again just how important this part of the professional services community is to our region’s health.
Businesses being bought and sold are the key to a buoyant local economy and you need a large pool of talented lawyers, accountants, advisers, funders and investors in place to prompt and facilitate these deals.
Last year’s Dealmakers Awards, whilst well attended, had the atmosphere of people determined to enjoy themselves after a difficult year. This year the atmosphere was a lot more upbeat, reflecting the fact that the deals market has been a lot more buoyant and everyone has been that much busier.
What has also become apparent over the past year is that dealmakers have been going further afield to find business. LDC - given the Private Equity House of the Year accolade on the night - has done a number of out of patch deals this year including Antler in Lancashire and AIM Aviation in Dorset. Its Midlands managing director Martin Draper - once again our Dealmaker of the Year - points out that this is bringing business back into our region which has to be good for the whole professional community. However, he says that he is disappointed that a number of Midlands deals have featured local advisers but the private equity firm involved has been brought in from London.
Of course if our private equity firms are searching far and wide for business it would be naïve to think that PE firms elsewhere in the country aren’t doing the same thing but what I think Draper is talking about is not some sort of regional protectionism but ‘shopping locally’ to help sustain the local economy.
I think he makes a fair point because where there is a gap in the market it’s inevitable that people from outside will come in and fill it. But we’re not short of private equity firms in this area, nor talent in any of the other dealmaking skills so it’s annoying when so much work drifts out to, usually, London-based firms.
I’m not in favour of protectionism but, all other things being equal, if I get the choice between using a local provider or a national or international one - whether it be a coffee shop, pub or product - I will plump for the former.
The argument against broader protectionism of course is that if we stop using other people’s services and products then they will stop using ours but a little bit of stealth localism wouldn’t go amiss, especially in areas such as construction and architecture where local firms sometimes feel they don’t get a fair shake through the tender process from local authorities and the like.
We’re entering a period in which little outside support is going to be available for businesses and anything we can do to help each other is welcome. Perhaps we should all ask ourselves the following question every time a new contract is handed out to an out of region supplier: Why didn’t I give that work to a Midlands company?
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