The basics
Company name: Capital Economics
What they do: Economics consultants and advisers
Headquarters: London
The boss: Roger Bootle
The financials
Latest turnover (?,000): 11,141
Four-year compound sales growth (%): 29
Latest Ebitda (?,000): 3,662
The details
Recognising that information doled out by investment banks to clients was ?used as a sales aid,” and therefore, ?riddled with conflicts of interest,” Roger Bootle saw a gap for a consultancy that could supply independent economic analysis to institutional and corporate clients.
Founded in 1999, Capital Economics now has 80 people based in London, Toronto and Singapore. After heavy upfront investment in people and services, the company is now reaping the benefits of critical mass and breadth of coverage.
To retain high calibre staff, Bootle has been generous with equity albeit grudgingly. I don’t like selling shares as I think the business has a fantastic future,” he comments.
Much of that anticipation of future growth comes from international prospects, primarily in Asia and the US. In the latter, says, Bootle, ?We have had fantastic success but we have by no means covered whole geographic areas, let alone intensively.
Profits currently stand at £3.7m up from £2.2m, and Bootle anticipates £5m next year.
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