Outside London, the Thames Valley is one of the busiest deal regions in the country. Jason Sinclair finds out what keeps it buzzing
When it comes to recessions, the Thames Valley “typically goes in last and comes out first”, according to BDO M&A partner Duncan Lamb. Part of this is due to geography: proximity to Heathrow and convenience for London – helped by the opening of the Elizabeth line – can take some credit for attracting the UK headquarters of behemoths like Microsoft, Oracle and Verizon, many of whose experienced workers go on to start their own businesses locally.
Then there are the universities in Oxford and Reading, which not only spin out tech and pharma enterprises, but also incubate a pool of skilled graduates who stay on patch. Along this stretch of the M4 corridor, there’s no shortage of high net worth investors too, keen to invest in Surrey, Berkshire and Oxfordshire’s established businesses. This complements a network of start-ups primed for backing by Reading’s many private equity firms, as well as their London counterparts.
Rolling with the punches
Despite these strong fundamentals, 2025 did not get off to a good start. “After a flurry of transactions closing before the 2024 budget, the quality of new deals coming to market in the first part of 2025 was mixed,” says Ricky Lane, a corporate finance partner at HMT. “However, activity has really picked up again since summer and there seem to be a number of quality mandates in progress.”
Alex Pike, a deal services partner for RSM, who is also managing partner at its Reading office, agrees: “Exits have been at their lowest for a few years, but I think that will turn around in 2026. We’re certainly seeing plenty of assets being prepped.” Bolt-ons by PE-backed businesses have been a feature of that exit preparation, which Pike sees as a sign of companies “getting their houses in order to make transactions in the next year to 18 months”.
There’s been a bit of uncertainty but we’re going into a better market
Crucially, he adds, “This is all supported by a lot of dry powder – and there’s strong competition for high-quality assets both from the UK investor community and overseas.”
Despite that competition, there is also caution, which means advisers are often required to work harder for their money. Will Rose, a director at Grant Thornton’s UK corporate finance team based in the Thames Valley region, sees “a more cautious buyer and investor landscape where people are asking a lot more questions. That means a lot more due diligence than we maybe had previously, probing that extra bit further.” Businesses targeting a private equity backed trade buyer need to be aware that investors are more hands-on with their portfolio companies than before.
“The organisations that we sell businesses to, their investors are used to executing transactions of a certain size and shape,” says Rose. “I suspect that there are fewer transactions happening at the higher price point, so investors are focusing their time on portfolio companies. There is a significant difference in the level and quality of data that is available for a £10m-turnover and a £100m-turnover company. This means we have to do more in terms of prepping for a transaction, obtaining and assisting our clients in creating a lot of information that doesn’t otherwise exist.”
Surprise suitors
Headwinds from the US, coupled with the sustained high cost of debt means the really big deals are happening less frequently, says Lane: “We’re seeing some of the investment banks or larger M&A houses in London cropping up on pitch lists or making cold enquiries to business owners at our end of the market – bigger firms that we wouldn’t necessarily compete with for sub-£100m deals.”
The consensus in the local corporate finance community, says Lane, is that whilst the bigger players want to keep staff busy they won’t compromise on fees and won’t necessarily offer a client their A-team. “They’ll be very expensive for a deal of that size and the client won’t get a quality service,” says Lane, “but it is making it a bit more competitive to win new work, unless you have a pre-existing relationship with the key decision-makers.”
Shopping smarts
Founded in 2001 by Paul Mason, Abingdon-based PMC provides consulting, professional services, digital engineering and managed services to more than 120 retail, commerce and technology customers, in 24 countries. Its 500-strong team from the UK and India has built a customer base with leading brands such as National Express, Primark and World Duty Free.
Duncan Wade (pictured) led BGF’s investment into PMC to “support its next phase of growth” as it seeks to double its workforce.
PMC wants to expand its high-calibre management team to deliver high recurring revenues and create a scalable business that can become the leading independent technology services provider in the retail and commerce space, drawing on deep domain expertise.
The digital transformation market is a vibrant one, with omnichannel integration, data-led decision-making, and the adoption of AI, automation and cloud operating models all acting as tailwinds, especially in the retail sector. PMC’s expertise positions it to serve all aspects of this transformation, connecting legacy systems with modern digital stacks.
Spin-outs are in
Duncan Lamb and his BDO colleague, partner James Buckingham, say there is a preponderance of tech-enabled businesses and managed services businesses in the Thames Valley, both spinning out and selling to the huge tech players. They also point to specialist tech and automotive businesses serving the local “Formula One triangle”, pharma companies linked with the region’s universities, and value-added distribution logistics companies.
Citing another sector more common in the South East, Buckingham adds that they have sold a number of private schools: “This is maybe a more challenged sector, but for strongly performing institutions there’s investment appetite. Anywhere there are regulatory or budgetary challenges, innovation is required to meet that. The built environment, for example, is a specific sector where we’re seeing lots of activity, due to changes in legislation.”
Reading’s most prolific local dealmaker is BGF, whose “minority investor, long-term partner” model for £3m-£30m investments is well tailored to the region’s scale-ups. BGF investor Duncan Wade says the region’s “high concentration of owner-managed SMEs transitioning to institutional capital” and “strong technology and digital services ecosystem” fuels multiple buy-and-build platforms in the region. “The Thames Valley is dominated by growth-equity and mid-market PE, rather than large leveraged buyouts,” he says. “Minority and mid-market MBO deals are particularly common.” A number of private equity offices, including LDC, YFM, NVM and Maven, are also active in the county town.
Behind the deals, the corporate finance community in the Thames Valley, mainly centred on Reading, is “collegial”, according to Lane. “We’ve got a good adviser community, and most of us have probably worked with one another at various times in different shops.” In other words, as Pike says, “It’s not sharp elbows out. People have been here for quite some time and are used to working together.”
Causing a STIR
Ian Barton, who leads the corporate finance business at Quantuma, has “been in this part of the world for 25 years now. When I first came to Reading from Manchester, there wasn’t that much of a community.” He promptly established STIR (which stands for Second Tuesday In Reading) – a drinks and networking event that’s still going. “People are keen to socialise and share ideas. I think it’s quite a collaborative community generally in terms of deals. Yes, we’re all competitors, but actually we all lean on each other to find deals and we work for each other.”
STIR has a different sponsor every month – and has no trouble finding them: “We’ve got sponsors queuing around the block. We’re booked up to 2028,” says Barton.
Barton believes there’s “a real business momentum across the market”, as does Rose. “We’re going into a better market,” he says. “There’s been a bit of uncertainty and waiting to make decisions in a better market and, more broadly, there are a number of investors out there who have successfully raised new funds and will be looking to deploy them.”
Fundamentally, the Thames Valley area is “a good place to attract talent and set up business”, adds Pike. “And being on patch, being available and being in the local market – that still has plenty of value.”
Notes from a small cluster
“We play all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order,” says Dr Keith Arundale (pictured), channelling his inner Eric Morecambe to describe Reading’s investor and incubator community. Arundale is responsible for the private equity and VC courses at Henley Business School, University of Reading. He also co-founded the Reading Tech Cluster to connect local founders and funders in Reading and the surrounding area.
The starting point for Arundale was his research into why venture capital funds in the US are more successful than those in the UK and Europe. “In Silicon Valley, everybody’s talking to everybody all the time. You go to a football game on a Saturday morning, and people are talking about deals. In comparison, it’s not very active in Reading at all. So, I thought, what can we do about it?”
He realised that the region, with its university and giant tech companies, had all the ingredients but no recipe – or, in other words, all the notes without the order.
The cluster’s first investment summit, in July 2025, invited companies to pitch to local private equity and VCs. It also featured a “reverse pitch” event, in which funders presented to an audience of CEOs.
Webinars, podcasts and more events are on the agenda for 2026. “It’s all getting much better connected,” says Arundale. “There’s a lot more to do, but we already seem to have grown a vibrant organisation that has got everything behind it.”
From ox to unicorn
Oxford University spinout OrganOx developed the first fully automated device for liver preservation, enabling donor livers to survive outside the human body for up to 24 hours. This technology has significantly increased the number of available organs and been used in more than 6,000 liver transplants.
BGF first invested in OrganOx in 2019. The August 2025 sale of the life sciences unicorn – to Terumo Corporation for $1.5bn – generated BGF’s largest ever ROI. OrganOx continues to operate from Oxford as a standalone division.
BGF participated in each of the company’s seven funding rounds, including the last $142m round in early 2025. “Medical device innovation requires patient and supportive capital to fully realise its life-saving, societal and economic impact,” says OrganOx co-founder and CTO Constantin Coussios.
BGF, the largest shareholder, was supported by co-investors Lauxera Capital Partners, HealthQuest Capital, Sofina, Oxford University, Longwall Ventures, Technikos, Oxford Investment Consultants, and Intuitive Ventures.
The sale generated £175m for BGF, with a 10x money multiple on its initial investment and an overall IRR of 69%.
