News
More than 20,000 shops have disappeared from Britain’s high streets since 2010, as more and more landlords and property owners choose the repurpose units into homes, restaurants and cafes.
Analysis of official government data conducted by real estate adviser Altus Group has revealed that 20,143 shops have been converted or simply demolished between 2010 and 2019.
Only 14,314 ‘new’ shops have been created during the same period, which means the total number of stores in the UK has fallen by 5,289 between 2010 and 2019. And this number is expected to continue falling, with the Centre for Retail Research forecasting a further decline by 8,500 within the next five years.
Rising business rates, labour costs and low levels of profitability are making it harder for independent retailers and retail chains to survive in an extremely tough market. High street retailers are also facing increased competition from online rivals, which pay lower business rates as their warehouses are usually located out of town.
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Dawn, the venture capital fund dedicated to B2B software and fintech, has closed the Dawn Capital Opportunities Fund at $125m.
The fund will see the firm double down on investments in the European tech companies in Dawn’s portfolio and elsewhere, with a specific focus on C-rounds and beyond.
The new fund will enable Dawn to invest up to $70m in European entrepreneurs that are building scalable technology to solve tech challenges facing businesses today.
The fund was backed by institutional and family office investors across Europe and the US, including British Patient Capital.
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Zego, a company which offers insurance for gig-economy workers, announced a $42million raise in one of the largest funding rounds for a European insurtech start-up. The Series B investment was led by pan-European investment firm Target Global, specialists in the fintech and mobility space, with other backers including TransferWise founder Taavet Hinrikus.
The investment comes as the company claims a whopping 900% growth over the past 12 months. The London-based startup caters to the new mobility services, such as ride-hailing, ride sharing, car rental and scooter sharing and offers a range of policies from minute-by-minute insurance to annual cover, providing more flexibility than traditional insurers, with pricing based on usage data from vehicles.
The proceeds will be used to for Zego’s expansion across Europe and to increase the workforce from 75 to 150.
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UK-listed firms will become the first foreign companies to be able to list in mainland China under a new stock link, the Treasury said. Firms will sell shares through dual listings on the Shanghai and London Stock Exchanges.
The UK government said the project will open up British firms to new investors. The initiative will also allow companies from each country to raise capital in the other.
More than 260 of the 1,500 companies listed in Shanghai will be potentially eligible to take part of the project and list in London.
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By Tom Wacher, Kreston Reeves
The BBC’s Dragons’ Den is now in its 16 th season with the highs and lows of building a business remaining compelling viewing. It entertains and can be excruciating in equal measure, particularly when the Dragons roll their eyes following a wildly optimistic valuation of the hopeful’s business. So why is it so difficult to value a business? Partner Tom Wacher highlights some of the more common mistakes.
1: Unrealistic revenue and profit projections
The first mistake is unrealistic revenue and profit projections. There are many ways to value a business, most of which are broadly based on multiples of revenue and/or profits.
With established businesses that have a trading record, determining this is a relatively straightforward exercise with years of historic data to draw upon.
That is not the case with start-ups or fast-growing businesses where the past is not representative of the future. Ambitious start-ups and fast-growing businesses will often forecast rapid growth – the ‘hockey stick’ projection – but there are very obvious risks that those predictions will not be achieved. Given that the business may be pre-revenue, projections need to be credible rather than overly aspirational.
In these circumstances, a valuation is likely to be based on cash flow projections, discounted for the risks associated with the industry sector, the size of the potential market, the company’s own management team and their track record, and its strategy to achieve that growth.
2: underestimating the needs of working capital
Growing businesses need working capital, and the more they grow the more capital is needed.
Underestimating the need for future working capital can result in over-inflated free cash flows and can jeopardise the sustainability of the start-up.
A clear business plan will outline future cash flow projections including fixed, stepped and variable costs and, of course, future tax liabilities. It will also set out fixed asset purchases and working capital requirements including cash, debtor and stock levels. Higher levels of working capital will impact valuations, driving cash inflows down, but more importantly they can stunt growth and impact the chance of success for a start-up company.
3: comparing your own business to others
While finding a comparable business can be fundamental evidence of value, this is the classic mistake many business owners make, comparing their own business to that of an immediate or apparently similar competitor.
It is a valuation based on assumptions that does not necessarily take into account differences in patents, property and other assets, overheads and circumstances.
It is also worth keeping in mind that an established business with a similar turnover and profit to a younger business still in its rapid growth phase is likely to have a lower value. The comparison approach is only as good as the comparators used for the valuation.
4: defining what exactly is for sale
Failing to define exactly what is for sale can also cause problems. It is not, for example, that uncommon for a business owner to decide to sell a business but keep hold of patents and other intellectual property to then discover the value of the business is less than expected.
Alternatively, the valuation may be required of company shares rather than just the underlying trade of the business, in which case it is necessary to consider any debt owed by, or any surplus property held in the company.
Consider and define first what it is you are actually looking to sell and what will be held back before valuing a business.
5: the reason for a sale
Whilst this is perhaps less of a mistake made in valuing a business, the reason for and the timing of a sale may impact price.
Selling a business when the economy is depressed or when funding is scarce will inevitably depress valuations. So too may prices fall if it is a forced sale – for example if a husband and wife in a family run business are separating. Conversely, in some circumstances, significant premiums may be achieved depending on the acquirer’s need.
There are many different ways to value a business and many mistakes that can be easily made.
Choosing the right accountant or adviser to assist is critical in achieving the best and a fair valuation. They will typically value a business via two or three different models to arrive at an accurate valuation, together with drawing upon their experience of similar businesses in the same sector and geography.
Tom Wacher is a Partner in the Forensic Accounting team at Kreston Reeves, accountants and business advisers www.krestonreeves.com.
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Crane Venture Partners, a London, UK-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage intelligent enterprise startups, closed Crane I, its first institutional fund, at $90m.
Co-founded by Scott Sage and Krishna Visvanathan, and also led by Partner Andy Leaver, Crane Venture Partners is thematically focused on the impact of data and data driven solutions on the enterprise.
The firm invests at the seed stage and has made several investments to date in companies across Europe, including Aire, AVORA, Senseon, Stratio Automotive and Tessian. Several of Crane’s investments have already gone on to raise significant Series A and B rounds.
Crane Venture Partners recently opened its first office in Soho, London, and is actively adding to its existing portfolio of companies in Crane I and to its team as it further expands its operational support for portfolio companies.
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Kering, owner of brands including Gucci, will tighten its grip on its e-commerce operations, focusing on its own branded sites to sell its luxury products or ventures where it can control its image and client data.
After shifting into online shopping later than more accessible fashion labels, many luxury groups are now investing heavily in e-commerce while working on ways of retaining as much control of distribution and pricing as possible - two elements that help them maintain their aura of exclusivity.
Kering had already said it would wrest back control of web operations for brands such as Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen which had been developed by Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) - an online retailer now fully owned by the group's rival Richemont.
Seeking to boost sales and margins, the company is also looking to turn more of its collaborations with third-party, multi-brand retailers such as Farfetch or Matchesfashion.com into what it calls online concessions, where it controls everything from the product assortment to their presentation.
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Paysend is adding six new countries to its network to allow more customers to transfer money to and from countries using their platform.
This comes as Paysend extended its network in areas such as India, South Africa and Sri Lanka in 2019, with plans for further expansion into Nepal, Pakistan and Turkey.
The Fintech startup operates in more than 70 countries and is a principal member of Mastercard, VISA and China Union pay.
The company has also launched a £4.2m Series B funding round on Seedrs to support its growth plans with the round being driven by Plug and Play and Digital Space Ventures. This latest funding round comes after Paysend’s £20m Series A in 2018.
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CellPoint Mobile, a London-based provider of digital commerce and payment solutions for airlines and travel companies across the globe, has raised £11m in equity financing.
The funding was provided by Toscafund Asset Management and managed by Penta Capital, the private equity arm of Toscafund.
The company intends to use the funds to:
– further scale its team globally, and
– drive additional innovation into its platform, especially in the area of intelligent analytics.
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TheRealReal, the luxury consignment platform, on Friday filed for a $100 million IPO. The eight-year-old San Francisco company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “REAL.”
Julie Wainwright, former CEO of Reel.com and Pets.com, founded TheRealReal in 2011. It started out as an online marketplace to help facilitate transactions for buyers and sellers of luxury goods. Over time, it expanded into brick and mortar locations as well. The company prides itself on making sure all items sold via its platform and/or stories are “authentic,” or real, hence its name.
Over time, TheRealReal has raised a known total of $288 million, according to its Crunchbase profile. Its last funding round was a $115 million Series G raised in July 2018. Backers include Great Hill Partners, Canaan Partners, PWP Growth Equity, InterWest Partners, Greycroft, E.ventures and Greenspring Associates.
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