Shaw & Co, the specialist corporate finance advisory firm, has launched the eighth 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 eighth report covers the Leisure, Tourism and Sport (LTS) Sector marketplace and segments over 800 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: The pandemic has seriously impacted this industry, reflected in lender appetite with a preference for tangible asset security.
• Differentiation: Scale does not necessarily provide a platform for margin improvement. Businesses would be better served by differentiating their offering as ‘best-in-class’ to create a value-add and allow upward price point adjustments.
• Macro Challenges: Current macro challenges may necessitate a financial restructuring of liabilities. Either securing revolving facilities or ‘terming-out’ existing liabilities will help improve cashflow.
• High Debt Leverage: Asset-light businesses that are still operating strongly should be able to secure leverage debt up to 4x Ebitda for internal investment or indeed speculative acquisitions.

Colin Burns, Director - Debt Advisory, 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.

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