Member Article

Busting the myth: why now is the right time to consider a buy-and-build growth strategy

Well-capitalised Private Equity funds are on the hunt using their buy-and-build platforms to deploy significant capital behind acquisitive technology company CEOs, says Bristol-based tech-focussed investment bank ICON Corporate Finance. That’s good news for tech companies looking to be acquired, or for those looking to become an acquirer.

Having focussed on future-proofing portfolios during the early stages of the pandemic, private equity funded companies are sitting on war chests, actively seeking to expand portfolio companies’ operations and generate growth through acquisition.

Commenting on this trend, Florian Depner, Director at ICON Corporate Finance, explains: “Market turbulence in 2020 brought a rapid acceleration in digital transformation. In fragmented market segments, this provides enormous opportunities for buy-and-build expansion.

“Well capitalised Private Equity funds have vast amounts of capital to deploy, which they were unable to do during the beginning of COVID. As a result, buy-and-build has become an extremely effective way for them to invest quickly and efficiently and take advantage of a re-setting tech economy.

“As a consequence, we’re seeing CEOs backed by PE funds sitting in a strong position to realise their buy-and-build strategies. That means exciting times ahead as acquirers look to rapidly gain scale and consolidate market share through targeted acquisitions.”

Buy-and-build opportunities, tactics and best practices will be the core focus for a webinar jointly hosted by ICON and law firm TLT LLP, providing an in-depth view by a panel of leading international acquirers on 14 October at 1600 (GMT).

Among the participants will be Brad Debold of US-based ERP Leader Aptean Inc, which has successfully completed five acquisitions since the start of 2020 as part of its buy-and-build strategy (backed by Private Equity heavyweights TA Associates, Vista Equity and Charlesbank).

Alongside Melanie Campbell of Inflexion, Oliver Schofield of LDC, and Nicholas Theuerkauf of Silvertree Equity the panel, joined by Nina Searle of TLT and Simon Moynagh of ICON, will discuss how well-capitalised private equity funds can provide financing and know-how to successfully implement and execute a buy-and-build strategy with the aim of creating a fast-growing platform business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Absolute PR & Marketing .