Stephen Robertson

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin’-race! To the strains of pipes floating down Cheapside, drawing in many a curious passer-by, our wonderful guests made their way to the church of St Mary-le-Bow on the evening of Thursday 30th January for the annual Metis Partners Burns Night. Through the imposing entrance […]

The day dawned bright and early for the Metis team on Thursday 5th September as we boarded our 7am flight for part 1 of our annual London Lawn Bowls Extravaganza! Despite the disappointment that Stephen was not able to join us from the States, we were grateful that he must have sent some Californian vibes […]

The day dawned bright and sunny, the birds were chirping and our spidey senses were telling us that it was going to be a fantastic day. The heroes of our story began assembling at the beautiful Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre at 2pm and after limbering up with a couple of cold beverages and a welcome […]

My colleague, Hannah, wrote last week about Forbes’ release of this year’s most valuable brands. I wasn’t surprised to see the list being dominated by the prominent B2C consumer brands. Although it would be interesting to know which businesses are new to the list and which have successfully leveraged their brand to penetrate new markets, […]

Continuing with the sports theme for World IP Day, there is no doubt that when it comes to sport & retail brands, the power of sporting celebrity endorsement is enormous. Sporting brands have made great and innovative moves with this over the years, from sports stars ‘wearing/using’ the product to collaborating with sports stars and […]

This week saw the start of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National, a highlight for me being both a golfer and a sports fan. The media swell for this tournament is well underway and many of the world’s top players feature in interviews, particularly being asked about their preparation for attacking the iconic Augusta National. […]

Image: Reuters/Phil Noble We have been stateside for 6 months and our daily needs are more than catered for, but, if pushed, Cadbury’s chocolate is at the top of the miss-list. Easter is almost upon us and, for our family, it’s the Cadbury-holiday; Crème eggs, Cadbury’s mini eggs, the heavenly taste of Easter egg shell […]

Being born and bred in Scotland, it goes without saying that a favourite event of the Metis Partners’ social calendar is our annual Burns Night. Haggis, bagpipes, poetry and of course free-flowing whisky! Our London clients have been helping us celebrate our famous Scottish bard for the last 7 years and thank you once again […]

This week’s Letter from America follows our first, and by all accounts, very successful Metis Partners’ Burns Night in New York City, kindly hosted by our friends at GCNYC and the Fair Fashion Center. It was a stormy night in NYC but I was delighted to welcome so many from the restructuring, private equity, banking […]

This week I was talking to some US private equity guys about opportunities for them to lend to the UK retail market; looking, in particular, at struggling UK heritage brands and the recent CVA phenomenon. We discussed how brands that are struggling in Europe might tap into a stronger US consumer economy, which is seeing […]

In my final brief letter from America for 2018 I wanted to look back and look forwards, although I am reminded of a client of mine who once told me “Stephen, all you get from looking back is a sore neck” – thanks Tom Mitchell at NVT – the lookback will be brief! 2018 was […]

It’s a curious thing, that in a global, connected economy I can arrive in the USA feeling like I’ve been disconnected. I am a 51-year-old taxpayer, father of two, with 30 years’ work experience, a UK homeowner of 30 years, own 2 cars outright and pay fortunes in utility bills and council tax every month! […]

Flying into Heathrow Airport this week I was struck by the vast array of unique logos on the tails of planes and a variety of airline names, several of which I didn’t recognise.  It got me thinking about the choice we have as consumers – Why do we choose to buy one product over another? […]

Living in “So Cal” – Halloween is a huge event here and it got me thinking that someone has to be behind, what is now a growing “industry” called Halloween. I narrowed it down to either the Michael Jackson Foundation (they must have hit some spookily high IP-related royalty rates from the number of times […]

I had the great privilege of attending this fundraiser in Boston for what is an admirable cause.  The great and the good from the corporate finance community were in attendance and I had been told it would be an essential “networking” opportunity for me.  Little did I know that I would travel 2500 miles, settle […]

Thanks to the insolvency & restructuring teams from GT, EY, FRP, Duff & Phelps, KPMG and RSM, who joined us last Friday for some fun & crazy golf in Manchester.It was our first event of this type and by all accounts, went down a storm. Much like many of the attendees rounds of golf!It was […]

Since GDPR shut down my Friday Funnies I decided to write a regular column and so here is my first Metis letter from America.As many of you know, I’ve now relocated to the US with my family to grow the business. Although as it happens I’ve been in London this week and am back in […]

At Metis Partners, we like to describe intellectual property holding companies (“IPCos”) to our clients as an “insurance policy”. It’s never too early to think about the strategic management of your IP and to “ring-fence” or separate these assets from the potential trading risks faced by your business. An IPCo is a form of special purpose vehicle whose function is purely to hold and manage a […]

The castle analogy is perhaps a bit clichéd, but it is nonetheless easy to visualise; if you think of your business as the proverbial castle, then what elements of your business make up its fortification?   You could also leverage the value of these defences in various ways; you could offer protection to the surrounding […]

Placing a tangible financial value on a brand and then leveraging that value remains a frustratingly opaque process. However, the creation of secondary markets to sell IP assets has encouraged lenders to look more closely at this asset class.  Brands as secured assets While this article does not cover the legal points of taking security […]

Here at Metis Partners, we acknowledge that the work of the IP valuation professional must be able to stand up to intense scrutiny, thus, it must be of the highest professional standard We know that IP valuation is not an exact science, but this should never be taken as a caveat to cover for a […]