At a friend’s wedding 20 years ago we were inside Falmouth castle whilst a football match took place between the age-old allies of England and Germany. Thankfully, the best man let us know that it was Germany 1 England 5 in Munich. About the same time, a young upstart, Roger Federer beat the Wimbledon maestro Pete Sampras.
I can’t say it feels like 20 years ago but, given Matt Hancock was only 22 at the time and was just finishing up uni with his friend Gina, maybe it does. 20 years later and England beat Germany, Federer still wins and Matt is spending more time with Gina – plus ça change! What has changed is the ever-increasing focus on ESG – Ignore this at your financial peril.
It has been great to enjoy the summer with a semblance of normality -sport, friends round for a BBQ and, for my family, a holiday in the Lake District. Polestar even managed to move office yesterday! Thankfully the majority of economy is now defrosting and we are seeing some sectors burning red hot, which in turn is leading to a lot of corporate finance activity.
Even manufacturing has finally started the climb out of the doldrums, and is now set to recover a significant amount of that loss in 2021 and will outpace the growth of the economy overall. Make UK forecasts suggest that manufacturing output levels will return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022. Good news for all of us, whatever sector you are in.
With this bright future it is no wonder valuations are holding up. The latest in our series of valuation spotlight reports this month focuses on the Manufacturing and Industrial sector – click here to download.
Food and Leisure is of course feeling like Cinderella at the moment. All around we can see that hospitality, travel and venues are still awaiting the end of the lockdown. In the meantime business is doing the best it can with many relying on government schemes as the sit in suspended animation. Ironically, those that can trade are suffering with post-Brexit & Covid staffing and supply issues.
So here is to the summer continuing to improve and let us be hopeful that the link between Covid cases and deaths really is broken. In the meantime read here about the growth in eating insects and the growing digital divide. We also have a few other blogs you may find interesting below across the various sectors.
Kind regards,
Charlie
