Basingstoke: Southern Entrepreneurs gather for private networking dinner
A select group of 30 delegates attended the Southern Entrepreneurs private dinner at Oakley Hall, situated on the outskirts of Basingstoke, to network, share stories, and listen to the views of two industry experts.
Tamsin Napier-Munn, campaigns manager of The Business Magazine, introduced the evening, sponsored by UBS Wealth Management, as “an opportunity for like-minded entrepreneurs to enjoy honest conversations and make valuable connections”. Napier-Munn also highlighted some of the recent success stories from the entrepreneurs in the room, including Magal Engineering’s acquisition by Arlington Industries; Adaptix’s latest fund-raising round; Clarify's 20% year-on-year growth; Xcel Sales growth of 400% since January this year; and Roc Technologies being awarded the FT's accolade of Fastest Growing Company of its Kind.
Following starters, the first speaker of the evening, Jonathan Caswell, investment director of LDC, provided his views on the UK outlook for investment opportunities whilst highlighting four successful case study examples of mid-market companies who had grown to the next level using private equity funding and expertise. Throughout these case studies, Caswell emphasised the importance of identifying the value upside and exploiting this by partnering with companies who possessed desires and objectives in alignment.
Then, after a networking break which followed the main course, Adam Hale, executive vice-president, Sage People (formerly Fairsail), took the room on a whistle-stop tour of the last five years’ growth of Fairsail, which has seen the company soar from £1m of revenues in 2013 to an annualised £17m of revenues in 2017, and outlined the recent acquisition by Sage in March.
A full write-up of the evening will appear in the June issue of The Business Magazine.
