Q&A: Mike Reeves on Clearwater's international merger

Alice Murray: How does the Clearwater International merger play into your strategy to target private equity firms across Europe?

Mike Reeves: With trading borders disappearing, alongside an upsurge in online activity in consumer markets or specialist engineering expertise globally, private equity has to increasingly look at businesses with a global growth opportunity, not necessarily headquartered in the UK.

Clearwater International will provide private equity firms with increased access to global businesses for either new investments or portfolio acquisitions. There have been a number of UK private equity houses looking to grow across Europe, which is evidenced by the likes of Bridgepoint, Montagu and Isis continuing to build relationships with mid-market private equity houses across the globe.

AM: How did the merger come about?

MR: Merging with firms in Spain, Portugal and Denmark formalises a long-standing relationship and creates an independent corporate finance house that provides clients with much greater access to international expertise. Our clients are increasingly looking for solutions to their M&A and funding needs and this merger represents a major step in delivering a highly differentiated service. Ultimately, we want to build a strong European hub, with increased access to international markets.

AM: What does it mean for Clearwater International?

MR: It will allow us to continue to strengthen the footprint of Clearwater International. We have already formed a strategic alliance with a Chinese investment bank, which provides us with the ammunition to capitalise on M&A opportunities in Asian markets. The new business will be headquartered in London and has 12 offices, 35 partners and 150 staff across Europe and Asia. We will operate nine international sector teams and now have a much stronger platform to deepen our focus on a global scale.

AM: Does this signal a continued increase in cross-border M&A?

MR: We're certainly seeing a lot more confidence from businesses, and the global deals market is definitely picking up. Interest from overseas acquirers is on the rise, notably from the US, with international buyers becoming more aggressive when looking to make acquisitions in the UK. They see the UK and Europe as a safe haven, operating in stable markets that are set for growth.

Global deals happening off-market is another common theme and businesses are turning to the advisory community to understand the right approach and strategy to deal with these effectively. This has resulted in some extremely interesting and dynamic businesses coming to market.

AM: Your UK debt advisory service appears to be increasingly active; following the merger, do you expect to see an uptick in this service offering in southern and northern Europe?

MR: We are seeing increasing liquidity in the debt markets, certainly in the UK, the US and Europe, although this doesn't necessarily match where the demand for debt as a source of capital is required.

Through Clearwater International, we are therefore keen to expand the debt advisory offering we currently have in place and look to advise entities across the whole of Europe. We will look specifically at aspects around how businesses actually access debt and how best they can prepare themselves ahead of 'going to market'.

I think we'd all agree that the days of a local bank being the only source of debt are now behind us.

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