The home of proven enterprise. At Dowgate, we advise and raise capital for entrepreneur-led businesses where management have a proven track record of creating shareholder value and significant equity stakes in their businesses, aligning them closely to the interests of all shareholders.
We are an independent Corporate Broker and Advisor with the majority of the business owned by our employees. We embrace a partnership culture that is entrepreneurial and creative in thinking.
The pools of capital we access include institutional investors, wealth managers, family offices and high net worth individuals through our Asset Management business.
We are a highly-focused team advising and marketing a select group of high-quality growth companies.
We back proven Entrepreneurs who have done it before, who have built a business from scratch and who know the trials and the tribulations, the agony and the ecstasy. In the immortal words of Bill Shankly, they know there is life, death and the business – and that only the business matters. They also know what the stock market expects of them – the rules of engagement – and have an existing fan base of investors who made good returns from them in the past and will back them again.
We partner with entrepreneurs who have real skin in the game. They must risk their own capital and not just play with other people’s money (OPM), otherwise known as “opium”. They must be totally committed, not just involved. Think of bacon and eggs, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. We’re after the pig. A sizeable shareholding does not of course guarantee that things will never go wrong, as invariably they do, but it ensures that the entrepreneur leaves no stone unturned in his quest to fix things.
We buy people. We rely on good old business to win good new business. Reputation is all. It is priceless. It cannot be bought, it must be earned, the long way, the hard way, by doing the right thing every time, all the time. No short cuts.
We invest in businesses we understand. If we don’t understand a business, we won’t be able to value it and if we can’t value it, we can’t raise the funds to grow it. Price discovery is the key and understanding the business model and how it generates cash unlocks it.
We back businesses in growth areas with structural tail winds which investors will in turn be interested in allocating capital to. We avoid talk of land grabs and TAMs (Total Addressable Markets) at the expense of profits. With free money gone and higher interest rates here to stay, there is no point in backing a business based on future vision and global domination. We go for cash generation and the here and now.
We back businesses which obsessively focus on growing the top line and controlling the costs to ensure a healthy bottom line. Profit with purpose has been at the heart of every decent, long-lasting business built since time immemorial.
The further you go, the riskier it gets. Conquer your own back yard first and then, only then, look for opportunities further afield. Be obsessive or be average.
We invest our own capital. If we aren’t prepared to invest, how can we ask our clients to invest? Alignment of interest from management, investors and Dowgate is key.
Our track record is demonstrable…
We have advised Sir Martin Sorrell on the creation of S4 Capital Plc since inception in May 2018 and have raised approximately half a billion pounds for the company for acquisition purposes. Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left.
We floated Franchise Brands for Stephen Hemsley in August 2016. Stephen led Domino’s to an IPO on AIM in 1999 and took the company from a market capitalisation of £25 million to around £1.8 billion, membership of the FTSE250 Index and from around 100 to over 900 stores in a rapid period of growth spanning nearly two decades.
In September 2019, we listed National World as a cash shell. We initially funded the shell with £5m enabling Exec Chairman, David Montgomery, to implement a strategy of consolidation of audience reach, digital focus and modernisation of local news publishing. David has a long history in the newspaper industry, he was CEO of Local World, an aggregator in the regional news area which was acquired by Reach in 2015, returning 4X to investors. He founded Mecom Group in 2000 and was CEO of Mirror Group from 1992 to 1999.
“I have worked with the Dowgate team (especially Lorna, David, James and Paul) for over three decades. Their expertise, especially in small and medium cap companies made them the natural partner for us, as we developed our plans to build a new age/new era advertising and marketing services solution for the digital marketing communications industry. In 2018, the Derriston shell provided the platform for S4 Capital to list on the LSE, having merged with MediaMonks, with Dowgate providing technical support throughout the process. They also introduced shareowners that have repeatedly provided growth capital to support our development, as we have grown to become a group with a well over £4B market capitalisation.”
“I have worked with members of the Dowgate team for over two decades. They advised on the IPO of Franchise Brands in 2016, introducing shareholders that have provided growth capital as we have significantly grown the business through acquisitions. In April 2020, Dowgate helped us raise funding to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, which enabled us to support all of our stakeholders. With the pandemic behind us, we are now working with Dowgate to deploy this capital as we accelerate our digital transformation, enabling us to deliver our medium-term financial targets.”
“I have worked with members of the Dowgate team for over three decades. Their expertise in shell companies made them the natural partner for me as I developed my plans to build a modern platform for news publishing. We floated National World as a cash shell in September 2019 and, despite the disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic, we completed the acquisition of JPI Group in December 2020. We needed to move quickly to acquire the group, and the Dowgate team facilitated this by using an innovative structure of Convertible Loan Notes. We now have a shareholder base that has provided us with growth capital as we pursue further opportunities.”
