Matrix: 20-years of Revolution!

As the team here at Matrix celebrates twenty-years of delivering exceptional results for its clients in the Private Equity and M&A marketplace, we look at some of the key developments that mean that today's Matrix is able to offer a comprehensive, end-to-end, service and product solution for all your pre- and post-transaction and ongoing portfolio optimisation requirements.

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When Matrix's Managing Director, Scott Ingham, founded Matrix Global Services (Matrix) in 2000, he did so to deploy a unique new project process that he had developed to enable companies and organisations to optimise the way in which they purchased their commercial insurance programmes.

Back in 2000 the Matrix independent, insurance programme review process offered users the first effective alternative to the "traditional" open-market competitive approach that was, and still, is, used by companies to purchase and renew the key coverage they need. Matrix clients soon began to recognise the value of our new approach as they reaped the benefits in the form of enhanced coverage, improved responsiveness and service from their brokers. Most importantly, they valued the fact that our new process delivered significant additional premium savings compared with the results they were obtaining through the old way of doing things. On a rolling average Matrix has saved clients an additional 20%, amounts ranging from thousands, to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Since then, Matrix has carried out thousands of successful projects for our clients. However, as the following "milestones" show, we haven't stood still in the past two decades. Our record has been one of constantly challenging the status quo and the result is that today's Matrix has evolved into a business that is able to offer you a comprehensive range of products and services that provide the Private Equity and M&A (PE/M&A) community with a fully-integrated end-to-end solution for all your pre- and post-transaction and ongoing portfolio requirements in the finance and insurance space.

2007-2009

Following an introduction to RBS, Matrix was invited to carry out a range of projects featuring some of the largest companies in RBS's portfolio. Our client was impressed by the results we achieved and in 2009 this saw us broaden the range of our connections, a notable "first-adopter" being Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) with whom we have worked on a significant number of projects over the past decade and identified additional premium efficiencies running to millions of pounds, savings that would not have been achieved without Matrix's involvement.

Today, in addition to delivering B2B reviews for our direct clients we work with a wide-variety of different houses undertaking individual projects on selected portfolio companies and acquisitions or reviews of complete portfolios.

2015

A feature of the projects we were undertaking for the PE/M&A communities was that it brought us into contact with the insurance due diligence (IDD) reports that were being commissioned from insurance brokers as part of the wider diligence process. To say that we were unimpressed with the great majority of those we saw would be an understatement! Always ready for a new challenge, in 2015 we launched our independent, fee based, IDD services allied with a range of additional deal support services that included Warranty & Indemnity (Reps & Warranties) and Transaction+ our post transaction programme review and reconstruction service.

We were told that PE/M&A houses would never pay for a service that insurance brokers would (ostensibly) provide for free. However, we pressed on with the development of our model in which the emphasis is firmly on our independent status in the process. Unlike insurance brokers, Matrix has no interest in acquiring the target's insurance business post-completion, our sole role is to provide a highly professional, competitively priced report, supported by the requisite technical advice and back-up from our specialists. So, by choosing Matrix for this critically important work-stream you can be confident that you are receiving a totally impartial assessment of the issues associated with the insurance programme of the business you are buying.

The result is that we now undertake IDD and provide associated deal services and products to a huge range of PE/M&A houses, ranging from small, "boutique" operations to some of the largest firms in the world; all of whom value the benefits that the in-depth knowledge of our specialists, the wide-range of market connections we are able to call upon and our totally independent perspective can provide to drive additional deal value.

2018

Never content to rest on our laurels in 2018 we decided that the time was ripe to work with our established connections in the PE/M&A, Asset Management and international insurance broking communities, to broaden our offering still further and we added deal origination/financing and a range of alternative risk solution products, such as Residual Value Insurance (RVI), Performance Policies and Commodity Price Insurance to support financial transactions to our range. The result is that, in order to effectively service demand in this area, in May 2019, we established Matrix Global USA LLC., taking Matrix international.

The Future...

As the foregoing demonstrates it's been an eventful two-decades for Matrix and we're now looking forward to the next 20 years!

Clearly, however, we are currently living in very uncertain times. But the good news is that the way in which we have developed Matrix over the past 20 years for example, the adoption of our devolved working model allied to all of the highly robust security and encryption measures you could ask for, mean that in contrast to many of our competitors, whatever your requirements, and despite the present crisis, Matrix is able to offer you access to our full range of products and services on a continuing basis. So, if you have projects where you need our immediate assistance, we are ready and waiting for your call or email. Equally, if you are planning future transactions don't hesitate to get in touch so we can plan ahead with you and discuss how our involvement can make life simpler for you and drive additional value in your future deals.

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