Oval Investments

Any fool can raise £500m. Raising £5m is difficult.

About

Oval Capital Raising

Founded by Johnny Sutton in 2011, Oval Investments helps unlisted businesses with all aspects of raising equity capital. This includes designing and structuring marketing material, understanding the optimum levels of investment and valuation for each individual company and targeting the right group of potential investors depending on the company’s age, industry sector, revenue position and growth potential. Having built significant relationships with VC funds, Family Offices and a broad list of HNW’s over the last 10 years, Oval employs a targeted approach to introducing the right investors for each business, focusing only on such investors where specific relationships exist, rather than adopting a scatter-gun approach. Oval charges a fee only for success, there being no up-front costs, but only a percentage of the investment actually received by the company. Oval will often take a portion of its fee in equity where agreed and appropriate.

For the avoidance of doubt, Oval Investments Ltd introduces potential investors to Unlisted Companies but does NOT ‘arrange or make arrangements for investments’ which are designated ‘regulated activities’ by the FCA.

Oval M&A

As liquidity continues to evaporate and listing costs on AIM become ever more onerous, the IPO route as an exit strategy for smaller private companies has become an unattractive proposition. Throw in paltry valuations, ridiculous volatility on tiny volumes and non-existent broker coverage and the IPO route, particularly in the UK makes no sense for many businesses. The recent de-listing of AIM stock C4X Discovery to ‘improve liquidity’ tells you all you need to know. Oval can help with liquidity events involving Corporate Sales and MBO’s, identifying potential buyers and running the sale process allowing management teams to remain focused on their day to day business.

Johnny Sutton spent more than 30 years in the City having begun his career in Edinburgh in 1983. Johnny’s experience includes senior roles at a number of leading investment banks including Wood Mackenzie & Co, UBS, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, CAI Chevreux and Oriel Securities. Johnny spent many years in Equity Sales and Sales team management but has also been a Head of Equities and a full board member at Oriel.

Having been a UK specialist for most of his career, Johnny also has Emerging Market experience following a 4 year spell with UBS in Johannesburg and has run sales teams based in Moscow, New York and Tel Aviv. Johnny founded Oval Investments in the spring of 2011 and now focuses on fund raising for unlisted growth companies. With a broadly based network of corporate and investor contacts, Johnny’s transaction history and pipeline has developed across a range of sectors.

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