A year has flown by and my time at Gambit Corporate Finance has been fantastic! It has been hard work but great fun and extremely rewarding.
In February 2017, I embarked on an internship offered by Gambit, and began my project which focussed on succession planning in Welsh SME’s by way of a joint venture between Gambit, The Development Bank of Wales and Cardiff Metropolitan University.
The project began with extensive research to identify companies in Wales which may be facing the challenges relating to succession planning, with the objective of trying to improve Welsh GVA figures through encouraging owner managers to embrace their business’s growth prospects. Thousands of companies were identified throughout Wales, analysed into the six postal codes, according to a pre-determined profile encompassing shareholder age, net asset value and turnover. These results were further refined using specific selection criteria in order to isolate those which could benefit from succession planning support.
Interestingly, the number of SME’s varies considerably across the postal codes which suggests a disproportionate distribution of wealth, and therefore business activity, throughout Wales.
In addition to developing my research skills, my internship has allowed me to further develop my analytical ability through investigation of company financials, calculating EV/EBITDA multiples and researching market data on a daily basis. I have also been fortunate enough to have had a number of articles published.
I am tremendously grateful for the support and confidence that Gambit has given me, and I would actively encourage others to take similar opportunities should they be lucky enough to be offered them.
