Business owners need to ‘get real’
Article Date: Feb 04 2009Mark Wignall, chief executive of Matrix Private Equity Partners, says business owners still have unrealistic expectations for their companies’ valuations.
Says Wignall, ‘The lack of bank funding should mean there are very attractive buying opportunities [for investors], but at the moment Matrix, and I believe the market as a whole, is not being flooded with huge numbers of these opportunities.’
In his view, this is because business owners are clinging to pre-credit crunch valuations which are now unachievable. He adds, ‘Savvy business owners have got to get real – the options are they can become the hunters or the hunted.’
Wignall concludes, ‘In 18 months’ time, it might not turn out to be the best smaller companies in each sector that have thrived; instead, it might be the smaller companies that got their act together to make sure they had adequate funding for this environment.’
The Matrix chief was speaking at a London event hosted by the Association of Investment Companies.
