Stephenson Harwood

Deal appeal survey

International law firm Stephenson Harwood is seeing continued strong deal activity in the UK, despite negative headlines predicting doom for the UK economy splashed all over the news. Contrary to the received wisdom that investors have fled the UK following the Brexit vote, investment is at a record high. Yet real data on the economy gets ignored.

Stephenson Harwood hired Grist to conduct a pan-industry global survey of 300 senior executives heavily involved in M&A activity, to find out more about domestic and international investors’ attitudes towards the UK as a deal-making destination.

The results are highly encouraging for Stephenson Harwood’s corporate finance team and their clients: the UK is considered an attractive location for investment, with many respondents looking to the UK for technology and IP, a skilled workforce and access to capital. Brexit is clearly on people’s minds – it emerged as the biggest risk of investing in the UK – but it is far from a deal-breaker.

Unsurprisingly such counter-intuitive findings garnered great press coverage including Real Deals, City AM and The Times. A series of blogs and social media activity all directed readers to a campaign microsite showcasing the flagship report, which was available as a gated download to capture and qualify sales leads.