Contents

• Executive Summary
• Data Overview
• Analysis of the Data- Tables
• Projecting Forward – Using Advanced Search
  • including How To Videos on setting up these searches
• Next Steps

Executive Summary

• 2024 Acquiring companies were likely to:
  • Have scaled up (in either headcount or turnover), been mentioned in a high growth list, and had some form of equity or debt funding
  • Be based in the United Kingdom (particularly the South of England) or the United States
  • Have over 100 employees, turnover of over £30M, and over £1M in EBITDA, Operating Profit and Cash
  • Be valued at over £10M, and have received over £6M in equity funding
  • Jump to the predictive search for companies likely to acquire another next year!
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• 2024 Acquired companies were likely to:
  • Have scaled up (in either headcount or turnover)
  • Be based in the South of England or the North West
  • Have over £15M in revenue, but headcount varied greatly from a median of 22 to an average of 88.
  • Be valued at around £2.5-£3M, and for those who have received funding, they received around £1M.
  • Jump to the predictive search for companies likely to be acquired next year!
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• Factors like receiving a grant, attending an accelerator program, being an academic spinout or having a patent seem to not play a large role in being better placed for taking part in an acquisition event.

Data Overview

The underlying data looks at all acquisitions in 2024 between January 1st and the 15th of November and covers 1184 acquired companies and 997 acquiring companies.
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This data contains information on these companies’ financials, funding and grant history, locational data, auditors, and signs of growth, innovation and risk.
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Analysis of the Data – Tables

Financial Analysis

* Non-UK companies will not be filing financial accounts to Companies House!
** Companies that have not hit £10.2M in turnover are not required to file full accounts to Companies House, so some fields like Turnover or EBITDA may not be filed by all UK companies
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​Funding Analysis

Non-Financial Analysis

Signs of growth, innovation and risk

For more information on this, read this page about our Signals!

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​Most common auditors

Most common headquarters location

• On a country level, 71.2% of the Acquiring companies are based in the United Kingdom, followed by the United States (11.9%), Germany (3.8%) and France (1.9%)
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• For the UK-based acquiring companies, 26.7% are based in London, followed by the South East (14.2%), then the North West (12.3%), and Yorkshire and The Humber (7.8%).
  Scotland represented 5.7% of companies, whilst Wales and Northern Ireland represented 4.2% and 1.2% respectively.
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• As for Acquired companies, 31.1% were headquartered in London, followed by the South East (13.1%), North West (9.1%) and the South West (6.8%).
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Tracking Status

• Of the Acquiring companies, 48.5% are Tracked, 45.3% are Not Tracked, and 6.1% are Ceased Tracking
  • Read more here!

Projecting Forward – Using Advanced Search

From this, we can build a prospective search for companies likely to be involved in an acquisition event next year.

• Companies likely to acquire another company
  • Click here to see this search on your account!
  • Slight tweak – same as before, but have also acquired a company before!
    

    A demonstration of how to build the above search from scratch
    ​https://www.loom.com/share/6ea7348f68ba40b882bb471c2ce10982?sid=5906bf4b-2dd1-4e7b-9e6e-9309ce083351
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• Companies likely to be acquired
  • Click here to see the search on your account!

A demonstration of how to build the above search

: https://www.loom.com/share/4a67e90bbf97462d826a6919e29faf9b?sid=448dfb44-e654-46e2-a611-9c3d65181bca

Next Steps

• Set up these searches on your account and save them to a collection. This will allow you to receive tailored alerts to make sure you’re on top of all interesting activities for these companies of interest.
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• Speak to your Account Manager or Client Experience Manager for support on how to build out similar searches like this
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• Consider adding in other elements that might make companies more likely to be involved in an acquisition
  • eg. A company with an ageing founder or director may be setting up to be acquired
  • eg2. A company with prior experience of acquiring a company or with positive trends in their financials (e.g., a 20% increase in turnover or a 5% compound annual growth rate in their EBITDA) is more likely to acquire than companies without these traits.
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• Read our similar Help Centre blog about companies that are likely to exit, either via acquisition or IPO.