Shaw & Co, the specialist corporate finance advisory firm, has launched the third in a series of 12 in-depth sector reports that offer an industry’s SME business leaders a powerful benchmarking tool to aid their decision making. 

The third report covers the Automotive, Transport and Logistics (ATL) marketplace and segments over 2,200 businesses with earnings in excess of £1m by size and subsector to track their performance, profitability, debt levels and M&A activity.

The report’s key findings include:

• Covid-19: We see some sub-sectors, particularly automotive, shouldering the burden of a 10%-20% drop in sales revenue which places enormous pressure on short-term trading. This may require some debt restructuring and will present alternative lenders an opportunity to bridge the gap left by the traditional lenders for longer term loans for SMEs.
• Partnerships: We expect working partnerships to increase between automotive manufacturers and logistics providers based on anticipated growth rates in the sector and a return of normalised supply chains post-Covid.  
• Mergers & Acquisitions: Very buoyant M&A market with double the volume of transactions compared to the prior year. Strong international buyer demand for quality UK businesses regardless of size or location. 
• Borrowing: There is now a significant opportunity for alternative lenders to bridge the gap left by the traditional lenders for longer term loans for SMEs.
• Funding Capacity: A good ATL business with solid growth plans could be borrowing up to four times its earnings (Ebitda) for growth projects and acquisitions.

Colin Burns, Director – Debt Advisory, at Shaw & Co and editor of the report said: “Larger blue-chip corporates have regular access to this type of analysis from investment banking advisers. However, it is our mission at Shaw & Co to provide SME business leaders with free access to the same market intelligence in a clear, concise and easy-to-use way.  

“This report will help SME business owners to benchmark their own and their peers’ performance relative to their sector. It will also provide them with valuable market insight that will enable them to evaluate their relative creditworthiness and attractiveness from a M&A or growth funding perspective, allowing them to make the best decisions for their business and its future.”  

A full copy of the report is available for free download here.