Simon Holden

In my recent piece for The Telegraph, I explored the shifting narrative for UK Plc from vulnerability to opportunism. For months, the rhetoric has been that UK equities are undervalued, trading at persistent discounts to net asset value, vulnerable to overseas takeovers or looking for greener pastures overseas. These concerns haven't vanished overnight, but it feels like the script is changing. You only have to look at recent transactions in the market to see this. In a short run, we've had the Assura plc–Primary Health Properties PLC (PHP) and Unite Students-Empiric Student Property plc agreed mergers. Not to mention Coats' acquisition of US-based insole maker Ortholite, and Hammerson's purchase of the remaining stake in the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham. These are all shining examples of strategic M&A deals, backed by long-term, supportive shareholders - and crucially, they keep capital in the UK. Add in £60bn of buybacks and a surge of US investment into UK equities, and it feels like the momentum is slowly building. So, it begs the question: where are our pension funds? Their huge underweighting to UK equities remains a structural flaw, and while the Mansion House Accord is a step forward, we can't underestimate the role of domestic institutional capital in maintaining - and building - this momentum. And we should also rethink ISAs. Currently, we're using taxpayers’ money to subsidise the interest earned on cash saved in ISAs, and yet they consistently deliver poorer returns relative to the market. For cash ISA’s why not redirect the same tax break to ease the burden of mortgage interest payments? It would support the housing market and benefit both the current and future generations. While the issues in the UK market are by no means resolved, after a long period of drift, it feels like our listed companies are starting to get their mojo back. The tide hasn't fully turned, but the current is shifting. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/drhsPFug #London #UKEquities #CapitalMarkets #Investment

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Very glad to report that Kline Hill Partners just expanded into the UK. James Bradshaw will be leading the office as it opens to provide better support to limited partners and private equity funds looking for liquidity. Private Equity International ran the exclusive this morning. https://lnkd.in/eiPNR4sq The new office adds on to our existing office in Zurich to jointly along with our Greenwich, CT HQ continue the mission of providing secondaries liquidity for underserved parts of the #privateequity industry: 🔵 LP deals below $100m (and a high volume below $20m) in buyout, venture growth, etc. 🔵 GP-led buyout continuation vehicles below $250m 🔵 Tech and VC secondaries

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We're proud to announce a key milestone in the first close of our Digital Infrastructure Fund and associated co-investments, with total commitments at first close of c.€600m, including a cornerstone investment from L&G*. Infrastructure, across both debt and equity, is a key tenet of our expanding Private Markets platform and a global investment opportunity. As early investors in digital infrastructure, we've built strategic partnerships and deployed capital into assets that are essential to economic resilience and long-term productivity. https://lnkd.in/g643H8JT For professional clients and qualified investors only. Capital at risk. *Source: L&G internal data as at 8th Sept 2025.

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🔋 In July, SMS sold its BESS portfolio and stopped optimising BESS in GB. Given their reputation as a strong price-setter in the frequency response markets, we wanted to see what impact their exit had on market value? The Dx frequency response markets run as a pay-as-clear auction through EAC. Here, the unit that sets the price effectively lifts revenues for all participants. Whilst many optimisers adopt a strategy of bidding low to secure acceptances and therefore revenue, price setters operate on the boundary, aiming to push the price to the limit and in doing so risk missing out on MWs entirely. --- By analysing data on Enact, over the last year: --- 💡 Tesla Energy set the price in 21% of auctions (2,700 events). SMS ranked 4th with 9% (1,221 events) – image in comments. 💡 Centrica was the most efficient price setter, averaging 470 price-setting events per asset compared with SMS’s 174 (4th). 💡 EDF added the most total value at £2.83m (slide 1), increasing the Dx market’s total value by 2.5% over the last year to ~£114m. SMS led in this category before selling its portfolio and had the 2nd highest revenue added over the year (£2.68m) - despite not participating for the last two months. It’s worth considering the number of price-setting assets each optimiser had to build this revenue. Whilst in operation, SMS achieved the highest value-add, despite only having 7 price-setting units compared to the 46 held by Tesla and EDF. To put these numbers into perspective, when tracking an average BMU which operates in the Dx market (“West Gourdie”), SMS’s contribution in the market increased this asset's revenues by 17% over the year, from £39/kW to £46/kW. --- Important disclaimers: --- ❗ To infer which units set the price, we focused on paradoxical orders and calculations of basket surpluses. Revenue add estimations were performed by comparing the market clearing price (MCP) with the highest order below the MCP submitted by a different optimiser. This is a naïve calculation and does not replicate the full optimisation of EAC. ❗ Chart 1 shows how much value would have been lost in the whole market if that optimiser chose not to set the price, and the next highest priced asset did instead. In reality, another optimiser may have stepped-up. ❗ These charts do not account for the MWs (and therefore revenue) the price-setter optimisers lost because they chased the high prices. ❗ Those at the top are not necessarily better battery optimisers. All credit to Patrick (LCP Delta) for the great analysis! We’re interested to hear where we could take this next. Got ideas? Comment below or get in touch!

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“An IPO could value Shawbrook at as much as 2 billion pounds ($2.69 billion” “The bank's private equity owners had previously explored a number of deals with rival lenders over the past two years, including Metro Bank and Co-op Bank” Good news for London, but the truth is that many UK companies are still choosing to list on foreign exchanges to achieve higher valuations. https://lnkd.in/epZFrS_H #Shawbrook #exitstrategy #IPO #exitlaunchpad

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Goldman Sachs trader Simon Costello joins Balyasny Asset Management. Dmitry Balyasny's $28 billion hedge fund has hired Goldman Sachs' FX Options Trader Simon Costello as a portfolio manager in its London office. Simon joins Balyasny after spending more than eight years at Goldman Sachs. Some of Balyasny's high-profile hires this year include: Ron Choy: Former BlueCrest portfolio manager and Credit Suisse MD. Dave Brodsky: Ex-Citadel money manager. Joon Park: Former co-founder and president of Kodai Capital. Full story: https://lnkd.in/e3Pa59WK

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Moelis acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Zero Two, the digital infrastructure investment arm of Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company, on its strategic co-control investment in Evolution Data Centres and partnership with Warburg Pincus LLC. #DealAdvisory Press release: https://bit.ly/45rLfy9

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Active management was never meant to be easy. We can’t all outperform and behavioural traps lie around every corner. Tactical asset allocation, in particular, is often set up to fail, with a small number of big decisions, made infrequently by a committee of senior people with limited individual accountability. I wrote a short piece on how - and how not - to design a top down investment process. Credits to C. Northcote Parkinson and Daniel Kahneman. Who votes we break for lunch? https://lnkd.in/eRMRq-PU

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