Private equity will continue to be a vital and fluid source of funding this year, according to accountant and business adviser PKF.

The UK study, commissioned by PKF and published by mergermarket, examined the levels of M&A activity across the country’s five key sectors – hotels & leisure, business services, food, real estate, and manufacturing – and revealed that private equity interest was especially high for management buy-outs.

PKF’s Corporate Finance partner Keith Ferguson drew attention to the past two record-breaking years of M&A activity and added that: “With a large amount of small, family owned-businesses that favour simple cash-driven financing, there could be more deals to be had.”

Ferguson also had some tips for companies looking for credit, advising that those struggling to obtain banking finance might look to a buy-out house. “There are approximately 200 private equity companies in the UK and with specialist help, decision makers on the cusp of a management buy-out or wanting to bring in venture capitalist help, could find a suitable financial partner”, he explains.

“It is inevitably quite hard for established business people, who have only used asset-backed finance, to switch to acquisition finance, but there is definitely a growing interest in talking to private-equity providers.”