December Edition 2019

15 Israelis Entering the UK market Private Equity Continues to Show Interest in Israeli companies With a rising number of Israeli companies looking to the UK, the Economic and Trade Mission at Israel’s UK Embassy is committed to helping Israeli start-ups integrate in the UK market, no matter what happens with Brexit. “With Brexit looming, the UK and Israel signed an agreement regarding the continuation of trade and the same will continue as before. If the UK economy does change, volume may be affected, but the trade conditions will continue, and there may well be an opportunity for Israeli companies and exporters,” added Becher. “With regards to Brexit, much will depend on the precise nature of the agreement but the direct shipping of goods between Israel and the UK will not be affected. There may be some concern if Israeli companies have logistic centers in the EU, and especially if they have logistic centers in the UK, what that agreement will mean with the EU and how they recognize that. This is for medical device companies, pharma, cosmetics companies, etc. It depends on what the agreement is.” While VC investment in Israeli start-ups often takes the spotlight, Clinton-Davis points out: “one of the most exciting trends recently has been the growing amount of private equity investment into Israeli companies, symptomatic of the new-found scale Israeli companies are achieving.” Clifford Chance has advised a number of privateequityclientsonentering the Israelimarket,includingPermira’s multi-billion-dollar acquisition of video software provider NDS, CVC on its USD 400 million investment in AdTech giant IronSource and Bridgepoint on its USD 420million investment in software testing company Qualitest. “Here in the UK, I find that there is more openness to work with international companies than you may at first think. It should not be surprising as this is one of the oldest centers of trade in the world. The perception of UK has often been that it is not so open, but it is keen to bring inmore companies from Israel, is open to adapt and adopt innovation. There is a great deal of familiarity with Israel,” points out Becher. There are two-way cultural challenges.