A Brighter Future
Insights by Peter Watson.
Attending a Corporate Finance industry meeting last week one of the hosts (from PwC) talked about the CEO survey that their firm had recently released [1].
The findings make some interesting reading. You may not be surprised to hear that 61% of UK CEOs surveyed are investing in Artificial Intelligent (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) – however the benefits are slow to accrue with 79% citing little or no change to profits or revenue yet as a result, though just over a third expect the benefits to be felt in the current year.
For the UK economy UK CEOs are more positive than last year – with 61% anticipating UK economic growth this year, compared to 39% last year. Perhaps most encouragingly, among global CEOs, the UK has risen from fourth to second place, behind the US, in terms of where their capital expenditure investment is planned.
We are quite used to talking the UK down, and that can include the UK Government, however the reality is that the UK is still a very easy place to do business. Having sold a company to a German business just last year, the red tape had to be seen to be believed – indeed a notary is required to read out loud in court the entire contract!
So, whilst it is easy to see the UK’s problems, the reality is that the rest of the world “ain’t so good neither!”
We are still running our annual survey for owners of software and IT services businesses. So, if you haven’t already done it, please do take a couple of minutes to complete the anonymous questionnaire about your business’s performance. We will publish the results in our next M&A report due out in April. Take the survey here: https://s.surveyplanet.com/5scxrrmc
Registration is open for our next live webinar taking place later this month. If you’re thinking about selling your tech business and would like to increase its value, then join us to find out how to make your business more attractive to buyers. If you receive our monthly newsletter there is a special discount code for you in the email. See full webinar details here: www.prismcorporatebroking.com/webinar
[1] PwC 28th Annual CEO Survey