Grant Thornton has released the findings of its 2022 Dealtracker, an analysis of the Australian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and equity markets from 2020-21**. The COVID-19 pandemic was a constant factor in this Dealtracker’s reporting period, however, it failed to reduce the appetite for deals and – in many cases – positively influenced investments with deal volumes reaching record levels not seen for over a decade. 

Dealtracker Snapshot:

• Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) activity jumped over 700 per cent as there was huge growth in companies offering shares to the public for the first time to raise capital in response to positive equity markets.
• Overseas acquirers remained relevant as foreign buyers continued to support our economy. Despite the pandemic and associated challenges with undertaking cross-border deals, the demand for Australian businesses remained strong.
• Information Technology overtook Industrial as the new leading sector for the number of transactions in the market proving previous predictions. Acquirer interest in technology businesses dominated the M&A landscape, particularly amongst private equity managers, showing strong investment in innovation and digital capabilities.
• Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) remained the predominant acquisition targets with a high proportion of deals having transaction values of less than $100 million. This composition is reflective of the overall corporate landscape in Australia, with the majority of businesses being SMEs.

A record period saw total IPO funds raised grow by 712 per cent to $20.6 billion. The IPOs were dominated by offer sizes of over $500 million which accounted for 43.9 per cent of the total funds raised in this Dealtracker reporting period. Comparing the previous three Dealtracker periods to this report, the average offering size has increased in all categories.

In line with the upward trend evident in prior Dealtrackers, this report reiterated the resilience of International buyers in the Australian market with overseas purchasers comprising 30 per cent of transactions, up from 29 per cent in the previous Dealtracker period. This is a validation of the attractiveness of Australian assets given the barriers that were put in place throughout the pandemic and cement Australia’s position as a comparatively better trading environment than alternative foreign markets. With the easing of travel restrictions and overall economic activity levels increase, this trend is expected to persist. Specifically, buyers from the US and Canada remained the largest volume of offshore acquirers, with 50 per cent of deals, which is higher than 43 per cent from the prior Dealtracker period. US and Canadian acquirers continued their strong focus on Information Technology business deals.

As observed in prior reports, the Australian economy’s movement from a resources-led economy to a knowledge-based service economy has been accelerated throughout this Dealtracker period. As Grant Thornton predicted in previous reports, the Information Technology sector has pushed the greater M&A activity levels overall. Technology sector deals represented 42 per cent growth from the preceding 18 month period to now exceed Industrial and have become the largest industry segment by deal volume – boosted by pandemic market conditions.

Paul Gooley, Partner & National Head of Corporate Finance at Grant Thornton said: “This Dealtracker showed M&A activity levels have been remarkably resilient. As we look forward to the economy reopening resulting in improved market conditions and the continued weight of money, we should see deal activity remain strong and diversify across a greater number of sectors.

“Notwithstanding this position, should current inflationary pressures lead to increased funding costs and lower consumer spending and investment, there remains a risk that deals activity will slow and valuations ease as we are starting to see in IPO markets.

“High M&A volumes in the Information Technology sector are predicted to remain as the importance of investing in technology is a key driver to maintain competitiveness, serve post-pandemic customer preferences, and to deploy new growth strategies across the wider business landscape.”

** The 2022 Dealtracker covers transactions during the 18 month period from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2021. This survey is limited to going concern business sales, excluding those with a significant real estate nature and greater than $5m value. Grant Thornton’s Dealtracker was first released in 2012 and – now in its eighth edition – has more than a decade’s worth of deal activity and analysis to report.

LoanOptions.ai is Australia’s easiest loan tool which was created to take the headache out of loan approvals.Backed by tech, LoanOptions.ai is Australia’s first artificial intelligence marketplace for personal, business and car loans. 

Whether customers need a car loan, equipment loan, personal loan, business loan, or caravan loan, LoanOptions technology and lenders merge to provide the best marketplace which takes the stress out of what is a notoriously anxiety inducing process. The loan assessment tool is powered by artificial intelligence. This means that lender information changes in real time depending on the information that is added. The progress bar in the application continues to fill up as the user inputs more personalised information.

The biggest hassle when requesting a car loan, personal loan or business loan is the dreaded approval process.

Founder Julian Fayad explains: “We are Australia’s first ever AI powered loan comparison platform. We use data driven technology to pre-approve you with the most competitive loan from over 60 banks and lenders based on your personal circumstances. 

LoanOptions.ai is the only platform that provides you with REAL quotes from lender offers that you actually qualify. Many other platforms just show the headline rate, but by the time you give them your information, you end up paying more. Our platform is designed to continuously recalculate the quotes each time you provide more information. It will only show you the offers that you qualify for. Our process doesn’t just hand you off, we actually see your loan through right to the end when the money is paid.”

Why is it so hard to get a loan post COVID?

It is more difficult to apply for a loan post COVID because lenders have become more strict on policy. Many employees lost their jobs and had to find additional jobs whilst some are still on reduced hours. 

Julian adds: “We have more than 60 lenders on the platform and our AI accurately predicts which lenders will approve the client. This takes the complexity of trying to navigate 60+ lenders credit policies and more importantly prevents you from having to do multiple applications which could hurt your credit rating.”

Why is getting a loan so lengthy in Australia?

Australia has a highly regulated and stringent financial services industry. Whilst consumer protections are a good thing, this sometimes leads to lengthy paperwork, tedious processes and a lack of common sense being used in lenders approving loans. LoanOptions.ai is able to streamline the entire process and ensure all relevant options are presented in a fair and transparent way, leading to positive client outcomes.

Banks and lenders often use old school approaches

Julian says: “They still use physical signatures instead of digital signatures, they still use manual credit assessment which leads to long wait times, poor outcomes and poor customer experiences.”

1. Fill in loan details
2. Fill in personal details 
3. Choose your lender
4. Submit application
5. We perform checks
6. Loan approved

Renee Gamble, Managing Director, Sales, Google Australia gives us her tips for retailers ensuring you are there for ‘always on’ shoppers.

Shopping today is a digital-first experience for Australians. People are shopping more online than ever before. We’ve seen another important shift where a person’s first instinct now is to reach for their phone or laptop and look for more details online — rather than relying on physical stores to discover new products or see what’s in stock.

In fact, 9 in 10 retail dollars spent in traditional brick-and-mortar stores were influenced by digital during the most recent peak season. Looking closer, one in two Australians under the age of 55 are using Google Search to find initial information and ideas about what they might need — and this behaviour is growing. 

Why does this matter for retail businesses? With more than half of retail searches in Australia happening outside of regular working hours, if you’re not offering shoppers something to discover when your store’s doors are bolted shut, you’re missing out. Australians love shopping in-store, but stores are now a physical touchpoint in multi-channel consumer journeys. Rather than being a challenge to the store’s existence, digital’s ability to influence store interactions presents a great opportunity for brands.

The good news is that while the retail customer journey may seem increasingly difficult to plan for — there are things retailers can do now to create agile, multi-channel commerce experiences and future-proof marketing strategies.

Tips for retailers

Retailers can start by investing in first-party data, such as email addresses and purchase histories, and measurement to build a detailed and privacy-preserving understanding of your customers; how they shop, their motivations, their journeys, and what they’re doing online and offline. 

After understanding what your business already collects, you can then build your first-party data strategy across key channels including:

• Investing in tagging infrastructure for your website to measure conversions. 
• Add a software development kit (SDK) to your retail app to help you gather key customer insights.
• Organise the data people share with you offline when shopping in your stores with a customer relationship management tool, then import your offline conversions to measure campaign performance — so you get a more holistic view across omnichannel retail touchpoints. 

Then, embracing new capabilities through automation that allow retailers to stay responsive and flexible even when the pace of change is hard to keep up with. 

By doing this, you’ll build a digital foundation for your business that’s reliable, agile, and – most importantly – will future proof your business.

As technology seeps into every facet of our lives, high-tech systems are taking the hospitality industry by storm. It’s no secret the pandemic accelerated a digital transformation, influencing people to become accustomed to greater convenience as businesses adapted and deployed digital solutions and virtual customer service. A barometer for the innovation and changes taking place in technology, now more than ever the hospitality and hotel industries need to address these new consumer expectations, while still navigating tighter budgets and the industry-wide staff shortage.

According to hospitality entrepreneur Cam Northway, founder of globally renowned drinks agency Sweet&Chilli, hospitality consultancy ATYPICAL and Bondi restaurant and bar Rocker, with innovation at our fingertips, utilising smart technology isn’t as complex as it once was, and can transform your business in the long-run with reduced costs, increased revenue and improved guest satisfaction is just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to operating below the surface, here are six ways technology is shaping the future of hospitality:

Contactless Goes Mainstream

Over the past two years contactless technology has become a buzzword across all industries. It’s mainstream, it’s the new normal – and thankfully it’s fairly straightforward. Phasing out human-to-human touchpoints will streamline operations and enable access to a wealth of data that can be used to create seamless, personalised experiences and a fully integrated customer view. Digital payments and cashless transactions create an environment where from start to finish, a guest can enjoy the freedom of movement without stop points and checkpoints, and also sanctions pre-order or click-and-collect for wine and grocer style delivery, direct from in-house restaurants and cellar doors.

Concierge Culture

Fact: people of all ages literally live on their smartphones in today’s world, and how you operate at a hotel is no exception. Guest software – whether web-based or a native mobile app – allows your customers to interact with and purchase goods or services from the palm of their hands, allowing hospitality operators to increase guest revenue and manage their properties without increasing staff. An effective concierge delivers a level of personalised service that becomes one of the leading reasons your customers decide to come back – and rolling this out digitally will enable them access to whatever they like, whenever they like, in a way they’re all too familiar with – their mobile devices. From making reservations at your restaurant, in-room services, ordering food and drink, housekeeping and more – this digitally optimised tool creates a seamless customer journey from the pre-booking phase through to post-stay.

Keep Your Head In The Cloud

The current and future impact of cloud-based solutions within the hospitality industry is colossal, revolutionising the way hoteliers run their businesses and how they interact with their guests. Cloud POS and inventory management systems offer a single, scalable methodology where every aspect of your business can be managed – ranging front desk, restaurant, reservations, and accounts, all the way through to tracking inventory and stock levels in real-time, assessing menu trends and more. By implementing cloud-based tech, hospitality operators can offer personalised experiences and capture customer information – such as their preferences, transactions and behaviour, maximising revenue and guest satisfaction.

The Internet Of Things

In an industry as asset heavy as hotels, it’s simply easier and more cost-efficient to install connected room strategies as opposed to equipping hundreds or thousands of rooms with the latest piece of hardware or physical items. This is where smart rooms come in, aka the process of fitting everyday devices with internet-connectivity. From smart occupancy sensors that push menu notifications to smartphones at optimal times when the guests are in their rooms, offering personalised suggestions based on past orders, in-room entertainment and smart-room controls for lighting and temperature control, the bottom-line means greater personalisation, improved sustainability and enhanced guest experience.

Chatbots 2.0

Bots are blossoming in innovation as the AI applications move far past generic responses and basic human conversation. Within the hospitality space, chatbots can be deployed to several touchpoints, ranging from your web, social media or in-house branded apps. The digital assistants streamline interactions between consumers and your products or services, enhance customer experience and streamline engagement, reducing traditional support costs. From recommending dishes, suggesting food & drink pairing, processing payments, asking for feedback and announcing events or promotions, Chatbots have the ability to revolutionise your business on a daily basis.

Relief Is In The Air

It’s no secret COVID-19 has forced leaders in the hospitality space to rethink what defines an outstanding guest experience. Critical to this is making guests feel safe and comfortable throughout every part of your service delivery. While restrictions and travel bans have eased, the importance of healthy spaces is paramount, especially in the hotel and hospitality industry given the density and sheer volume of people involved. Upgrading sanitisation systems through various air purification technologies will promote ‘clean air’, offering a solution that delivers a higher-quality indoor environment and helps support healthy buildings. Ensuring consumer confidence is critical to maintaining the millions of jobs in this expansive industry.

While world events have changed the hotel and hospitality industry in many ways, it’s also highlighted just how necessary adopting new tech into your experience for a successful and sustainable business that’s on par with the changing guest expectations. Understanding how people use technology at home and in their day-to-day life will allow hospitality brands to replicate that experience, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and lower overhead costs.

Today’s $220 million announcement by the Coalition to support Aussie timber production, manufacturing and research is good news for builders.

“Master Builders has been calling for this type of action to address timber shortages in the future and boost local industry capability,” Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia said.

“The acute shortage of Aussie timber and reliance on imports to meet excess demand has contributed to massive spikes in the price of timber,” she said.

“We do not have enough plantation timber to supply housing needs in the future,” Denita Wawn said.  

“It’s in Australia’s national interest to secure our local timber supply by ensuring our timber plantation stock can meet future housing demand,” Denita Wawn said.

“A joint report released last year by Master Builders Australia (MBA) and the Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) shows Australia is headed towards a major cliff in timber framing production, concluding we will be 250,000 house frames short by 2035 – the equivalent of the cities of Newcastle and Geelong combined,” she said.

“In Australia, there is one company in WA manufacturing laminated veneer lumber (LVL) timber.  We should have the local capability here in Australia to do more manufacturing of structural engineered wood products,” Denita Wawn said.

“More also needs to be done to address shortages, cost increases and delays causing the current cost and cashflow crunch being experienced by the industry,” Denita Wawn said.

In response to trades and materials pressures facing the construction sector, Master Builders is seeking the following from the government:

• Incentives to improve sovereign capacity in product supply.
• Better coordination with industry, states, and territories to facilitate greater investment in softwood plantations to meet long-term structural timber needs.
• Government taking a more active role in enabling trade access arrangements for imported building products.
• Investment in and boosting Australian building product manufacturing and product appraisal/traceability capabilities.

WP Engine, the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company, today announced Atlas, its award-winning headless WordPress solution, is now available to businesses of all sizes with four new headless WordPress plans, ranging from $49 to $499, allowing developers to learn, build and grow their sites on Atlas. It also announced the launch of Atlas Blueprints, which are free, professionally-designed starter sites allowing anyone to get started fast with headless WordPress. Developers can also try out Atlas by signing up for a free Atlas Sandbox account, which allows developers to learn more about developing with headless WordPress and create prototype projects.

Headless WordPress. Perfected.

WP Engine’s Atlas is the complete headless WordPress platform, enabling exponentially faster dynamic sites with the flexibility and security that comes with headless solutions. Delighting both developers and content publishers, Atlas brings together the customer’s choice of modern development framework with powerful front-end Node.js hosting and headless WordPress all in one complete package. Users can rely on WP Engine as a trusted partner with one support organisation with the expertise to troubleshoot everything that’s included. 

 “We created Atlas because it allowed developers to use the modern frameworks they prefer and build personalised, omnichannel experiences integrated with back-ends at the speed normally reserved for static brochure sites,” said Jason Cohen, Founder and Chief Technology Officer at WP Engine. “The WordPress industry’s reaction to our Atlas launch last year was nothing short of amazing. In talking with our customers around the world, we found there was a strong desire to learn more about headless WordPress, provide an easy onramp to using it and make it available to brands and agencies everywhere, regardless of their size or budget.” 

Cohen continued, “Developers are tinkerers, always pushing the boundaries, finding new ways to harness the power of WordPress. Most have extensive WordPress and PHP experience and are looking to work in more API-centric and headless web engineering. With the launch of our new Atlas plans, Atlas Blueprints and Atlas Sandbox, we are enabling more developers and marketers to try out headless WordPress and build amazing, powerful, secure sites faster than ever before and scale them as their business grows.” 

Atlas for All

Developers are constantly under pressure to deliver highly performant + secure omnichannel digital experiences that rank higher and convert better on a platform that easily scales and integrates with an increasing array of martech SaaS tools.

Atlas unlocks a world of possibilities by leveraging all the content-creation power of WordPress while making it easy to implement on the front end with JavaScript and more modern web practices. From e-commerce to corporate websites to newsrooms and media sites, developers and marketers gain the security, stability and performance needed to engage audiences with their story or products today, and the control they’ll need for updating and evolving content tomorrow with autonomous page editing.

WP Engine is launching four new Atlas plans to help Atlas span the entire spectrum of headless WordPress needs for sites of all sizes. These new plans are in addition to the existing Atlas offerings for enterprise developers and agencies with high traffic sites. From startups to enterprises, these plans have you covered. 

Atlas Blueprints

Many developers want the added security and flexibility that headless WordPress brings and they simply want to create a beautiful site quickly. Atlas Blueprints comes with pre-installed plugins for headless WordPress publishing, and a React-based front end that is pre-configured for WordPress data fetching, routing, and search, enabling them to create a fully-featured headless site in less than 5 minutes.

Atlas Blueprints are professionally designed and leverage the best of WP Engine’s headless products, including WPGraphQL, Faust.js, and Atlas Content Modeler. Blueprints can be deployed using Local or a free Atlas Sandbox account. It can also be used to learn about headless development, rapidly create a prototype project, or even deploy a production site.

Free Sandbox Accounts

An Atlas Sandbox account is a free “playground” account where developers can dive into Atlas, play around with all the Atlas features and tooling, and explore, what is for many, a new way of developing in WordPress.

For more information about Atlas for All, Atlas Blueprints and to sign up for a free Atlas Sandbox account, go to https://wpengine.com/atlas/. 

​​The State of Headless 

Discover why organisations are choosing headless, the technologies they’re using, how much they’re spending, and what the future of headless holds in “The State of Headless: A Global Research Report.”

Learn more at DE{CODE} 2022

The new Atlas plans and Atlas Blueprints will be discussed in a session at WP Engine’s award-winning DE{CODE} 2022 developer conference. The completely virtual event will take place April 20-21 and will be broadcast across three different time zones, making it more convenient for developers attending from North America, EMEA, and Australia. The agenda is packed with 19 expert-led sessions that dive into the latest trends and technologies in WordPress.

This year’s event is organised around four key areas of development most requested by previous DE{CODE} attendees: eCommerce, headless WordPress, managed WordPress hosting and the builder experience. To learn more and register, go to https://events.wpengine.com/event/61de3570-be6a-4182-a365-c12d5236cef3/websitePage:5bbe0ca6-fd0c-4e77-b99b-de21baff9062. 

Limepay, the innovative payments platform, has introduced Limepay STACK, a new solution that simplifies B2B payments for Australian businesses. Just as customers of B2C companies enjoy Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payments with multiple instalments or other options, business customers can now choose from a range of efficient digital ways to pay.  

Limepay STACK makes it easier to make, receive and process payments for B2B businesses as well as their customers. By shifting to an all-in-one payments platform, businesses can better predict cash flow, simplify their accounts, save processing time and improve security, all while simplifying the experience for their customers. 

All payments made through Limepay STACK come with added fraud protection and offer businesses greater access to analytics and insights compared to traditional payment methods. B2B brands can offer white-labelled Pay Now or Pay Later options to customers, including single or multiple instalments, as well as monthly, fortnightly, weekly or daily frequencies for regular payments. 

Willie Pang, Chief Executive Officer at Limepay says, “Many B2B businesses are still relying on paper for payments. By offering Limepay STACK, we’re helping them improve the reliability of their cash flow, increase the speed at which they do business and help deliver safe, convenient payment options for their business customers.” 

The number of B2B businesses offering end-to-end customer experiences and omnichannel sales has increased over the past two years in response to the changing nature of commerce during the global pandemic.¹ 

With Limepay STACK, businesses can cost-effectively sell from anywhere; in person, online, over the phone or through their website, all while keeping customers within their branded ecosystem. Businesses can easily conduct sales where and how their customers prefer with the white-labelled payment options offered by Limepay STACK. 

Limepay STACK supports a range of card types including VISA, MasterCard, Amex, Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as eCommerce plugins for Magento 1 & 2, WooCommerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.  

You can learn more about Limepay STACK on YouTube. 

With Australians expected to make significant charitable donations to support flood-impacted areas, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is urging taxpayers to make sure that if they want to claim a deduction in their tax return for a donation they have made, it meets the criteria to be a charitable tax deductible.

Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh said, “We know Aussies are very charitable and after the recent floods, we are expecting to see a lot of donations and deductions in tax returns this year.”

In the 2019-20 year, around 4.2 million Australians claimed deductions for $3.7 billion in gifts and donations to charities and not-for-profits.

“Before rushing to claim a donation in your tax return, it’s important to understand what makes a donation charitable tax deductible. The donation needs to be made to a deductible gift recipient (DGR).”

Organisations or funds endorsed as DGRs are entitled to receive tax deductible gifts or donations. Not all charities and not-for-profits are DGRs. DGRs are either endorsed by the ATO, or in exceptional cases listed by name in the tax law. Additionally, many crowdfunding campaigns that raise money for charitable causes and individuals in need, are not run by DGRs.

“We know crowdfunding campaigns are growing in popularity, but they may not be run by a DGR, so it is important to check whether your charitable gift or donation will be deductible at tax time. Taxpayers can confirm an organisation’s DGR status by checking the ABN Lookup on business.gov.au.”, Mr Loh said.

“Further, in return for your donation, you can only accept items that would be considered promotional advertising for the DGR such as pens, wristbands or badges. If you receive something in return for your donation, for example, you make a gold coin donation for a sausage sizzle or buy vintage goods from an Op Shop, this isn’t considered a tax-deductible gift.”

“Most importantly, you must have a record of your donation. Most DGRs will usually issue you with a receipt, but they don’t have to. We will accept third-party receipts as evidence if the receipt identifies the DGR and clearly states that the amount is a donation.”

“If you made donations of $2 or more to bucket collections conducted by a DGR for natural disasters, you can only claim a tax deduction of up to $10 for the total of those contributions without a receipt.”

“We want to make it easier for you to support the charity of your choice. The myDeductions tool in the ATO app can store photos of donation receipts throughout the year. Then simply upload your donation information to myTax or send them through to your registered tax agent.”

The ATO may ask a taxpayer to provide evidence to support their claim or amend their tax return to remove the claim. Last year, we had to adjust a large number of charitable claims because the taxpayer incorrectly claimed the donation. Unfortunately, this will delay the tax return from being finalised and any refunds being issued.

“So, if you are claiming a donation this tax time, make sure it’s charitable tax deductible, you didn’t receive anything of personal use in return, and you have a record of the donation.”

“For those that have had their tax records lost or damaged in the floods, we are here to help you reconstruct them so you can be prepared this tax time.” If your records have been damaged, destroyed or lost, there are a number of ways we can help you reconstruct your tax records

Jo Palmer, a passionate advocate for remote work recognised for her positive impact on rural and regional communities 

Every year the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) awards a Small Business Champion at their National Small Business Summit to recognise and acknowledge small business influencers who are making a genuine difference to their industry or the sector. 

This year’s winner Jo Palmer is the Founder and Director of Pointer Remote, an online platform connecting businesses with talented professionals living in regional, rural and extreme remote situations.  

Alexi Boyd, CEO of COSBOA, said that this is an individual who is worthy of this prestigious award. 

“It is with great appreciation and congratulations that COSBOA announce Jo Palmer as the 2022 Small Business Champion. She truly deserves this award after years of dedication as a rural advocate, mentor and voice for enhancing women’s economic opportunities,” announced Ms Boyd.

“Jo is a passionate small businesswoman who saw an untapped pool of talent in rural areas that could be mobilised through remote work. She has worked tirelessly to job-match individuals and businesses from all over the country and has had a huge impact on building capacity in regional Australian communities.” 

Jo Palmer received her award at the COSBOA Summit gala dinner and was thrilled with this recognition for her and her team. 

“In the company of so many small business community leaders, owners and advocates, I am really honoured to receive this award,” said Ms Palmer.  

“In the five years that Pointer Remote has been in operation, it is small businesses from across the country who have really been able to leverage remote work to access the skills and experience they need for their organisation to grow. With talent in such short supply, businesses that have adapted to flexibility are finding it easier to attract new team members. We are so appreciative of those companies who have trusted us to help!” 

For more on Pointer Remote visit: https://pointerremote.com/   For more on COSBOA visit: www.cosboa.org.au/