For Redgate Capital, 2017 has been an outstanding year – full of positive developments and remarkable projects. Thanks to our clients, business partners and investors we have strengthened our position in financial advisory market in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Over our 9 years of history, we have advised over 55 M&A transaction in total amounting to approx. 100 million euros. In addition, we have raised over 150 million euros of capital to our clients in order to carry out ambitious plans and found investors to different commercial real estate owners with combined transaction value of over 100 million euros.
Redgate’s success in M&A and real estate transactions advisory, as well as capital raising segment has been achieved thanks to our strong team, who has worked together for years. In 2017, we expanded our circle of partners – experienced longtime employees Valeria Kiisk, Mairo Kaseväli and Andrei Zaborski were welcomed as partners of Redgate Capital. We wish them best of luck and success!
Redgate’s long-term goal is to become the best investment bank in the Baltic region. We have worked hard in order to achieve the goal, and we are ready for the new next steps ahead. Redgate’s personnel has always been actively participating in all the major events related to financial sector, taking place in Estonia. We were invited to speak at Pärnu Finance Conference, Nasdaq Tallinn and SME Assembly organized by European Commission. In collaboration with the news agency Delfi, we launched a weekly news section “Ettevõtte Rahatarkus” (Eng. “Financial literacy for companies”), where our experts and prominent opinion leaders share valuable tips and insights into financial matters – targeted at entrepreneurs, managers and all the other interested parties.
For well over 5 years now, Redgate has participated in different capital market development initiatives. Our wish is that Estonian capital market ecosystem works smoothly and provides opportunities for local businesses. Demand side of the Estonian capital market is strong – pension funds have close to 3.5 billion euros worth of assets under management, and term deposits, in local banks, of private individuals and companies are record high. Private equity, venture capital and real estate fund’s “dry powder” or investment capabilities are at record levels. All we can do is to hope that Estonian entrepreneurs are willing and capable to utilize the “perfect storm” opportunity, as well as are brave enough to go further and implement ambitious growth plans.
As an active long-term member of nonprofit organization FinanceEstonia, Redgate is committed to enhancement of economic climate in Estonia. To serve the purpose, in 2017 we helped the Government of Estonia avoid imposing new tax legislation which would be impeding business activities as well as helped to increase the threshold for capital raising deals without prospectus from 0.1 million euros to 2.5 million euros. In addition, we sponsored the biggest financial sector conference in Estonia – “Fintech Forum 2017”, which brought together industry experts and opinion leaders to debate on the possibilities to unite European internal financial services market, with estimated market size of 500 billion euros.
We believe that our work on supporting growth of Baltic companies will demonstrate further developments in upcoming years. 2018 will be special for us – Redgate Capital will celebrate its 10th anniversary! As part of it, we will arrange several events and bring you new knowledge – because thanks to you, our great cooperation partners and clients, we have achieved our current position. We see that next year will be very active for many growth companies and we believe that, first time over many years, we will see remarkable public offerings and listings in stock exchange that will give much needed kickstart to the local capital markets.