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Markets

Seven markets, two commercial cultures

Nicholas works with companies across English-speaking and Spanish-speaking markets. What follows is not a country guide. It is a note on what actually causes friction in each place and how that friction gets resolved.

English-speaking

United Kingdom, Ireland, United States

Spanish-speaking

Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile

Iberia · Spanish-speaking

Spain

The market Nicholas knows most closely, and the one where foreign capital most often arrives with assumptions built somewhere else.

What brings clients here

Inbound investment into property and development, acquisition of established family-owned businesses, and international companies setting up or scaling a Spanish operation.

Where it gets difficult

Two recurring issues. The first is administrative: planning and permitting sit across national, regional, and municipal layers, and practical timelines are often set by local capacity rather than by statute, so a schedule imported from another country can be optimistic by a wide margin. The second is relational: a large share of attractive vendors are family-owned, where trust is established before terms are discussed, and a buyer who opens with a process rather than a relationship can be read as hostile without ever knowing it.

How Nicholas works through it

Build the real approval sequence and price it into the deal, then run the counterparty relationship at the pace the counterparty recognises while keeping the buyer's own governance satisfied that the process is rigorous.

Europe · English-speaking

United Kingdom

British buyers, developers, and operators looking south, and Spanish-speaking companies seeking a UK entry point.

What brings clients here

Acquisition of Spanish and Latin American businesses, second-home and development investment, and UK companies establishing distribution into Spanish-speaking markets.

Where it gets difficult

UK acquirers typically run a documented, adviser-led process with fixed workstreams and hard deadlines. Counterparties working relationally can experience that as distrust, respond slowly, and be judged disorganised in return. Post-referendum administrative changes also add steps that both sides tend to discover late.

How Nicholas works through it

Keep the diligence discipline intact but change its delivery. Requests are framed, sequenced, and explained in the vendor's own terms, and vendor informality is converted into evidence a UK investment committee will accept.

Europe · English-speaking

Ireland

A smaller market where relationships travel quickly and reputation is a live commercial asset.

What brings clients here

Irish companies using Spain and Latin America as growth markets, and inbound interest in Irish operations from Spanish-speaking groups.

Where it gets difficult

Deal communities are tight, so a poorly handled approach is remembered. Businesses are frequently owner-managed, which means succession, continuity, and the owner's role after completion carry as much weight as the price.

How Nicholas works through it

Handle approaches carefully and with discretion, and treat the owner's future involvement as a term to be designed rather than an afterthought to be settled at the end.

North America · English-speaking

United States

The market with the strongest appetite for speed and the least patience for ambiguity.

What brings clients here

US acquirers and investors buying into Spain and Latin America, and Spanish-speaking companies seeking US customers, capital, or an acquirer.

Where it gets difficult

Expectations around pace, reporting cadence, and quality of financial history are high, and European or Latin American decision cycles can be slower for reasons that are structural rather than evasive. Sellers who have never prepared for a US investment committee are often penalised for presentation rather than for substance.

How Nicholas works through it

Set the pace expectation honestly with the US side at the outset, and rebuild the seller's commercial and financial narrative into the format a US committee reads, without inflating anything.

North America · Spanish-speaking

Mexico

A large, regionally varied market where distribution structure decides most go-to-market outcomes.

What brings clients here

English-speaking companies entering with a product or service, and nearshoring-driven interest in industrial and commercial operations.

Where it gets difficult

Channel structures are concentrated and relationship-led, and coverage that appears national is often regional in practice. A first partner chosen on enthusiasm rather than diligence can close off the very customers the entry plan was built around. Formality of documentation and speed of administrative process also vary by state.

How Nicholas works through it

Apply acquisition-grade diligence to partner selection, test claimed coverage independently in Spanish, and sequence the entry region by region rather than assuming a single national launch.

South America · Spanish-speaking

Colombia

A market that rewards patient entry and punishes companies that treat it as a single homogeneous opportunity.

What brings clients here

Growth-stage entry by English-speaking companies, services and technology expansion, and investor interest in established local operators.

Where it gets difficult

Demand data quality varies by source, and the same question can produce very different answers depending on which body published the figures. Local partner selection carries real reputational weight, and the relationship-building period before commercial discussion begins is longer than most foreign entrants budget for.

How Nicholas works through it

Triangulate demand evidence across local and international sources rather than trusting one, run partner reference checks in Spanish through people with no stake in the outcome, and plan the entry timeline with the relationship phase counted as work rather than delay.

South America · Spanish-speaking

Chile

Often the most administratively straightforward entry point in the region, and frequently misread because of it.

What brings clients here

Companies using Chile as a first Latin American base, sector-specific investment, and cross-border commercial partnerships.

Where it gets difficult

The relative ease of setting up leads companies to assume that commercial traction will follow at the same speed. The market is smaller than its reputation suggests, decision-making is conservative, and incumbent relationships are durable, so displacement takes longer than the entry paperwork implies.

How Nicholas works through it

Separate the administrative plan from the commercial plan, size the addressable market honestly rather than optimistically, and set investment expectations against a realistic displacement timeline.

The situations described here are recurring patterns rather than accounts of specific clients or transactions. If your circumstances look different, that is normal, and worth a conversation. See the practice areas for how the work is structured.

Contact

Working into a market you do not read fluently?

Tell Nicholas which market and what you are trying to achieve. He will tell you what usually goes wrong there and whether he can help.

hello@nicholaspow.com

Consultations available in English and Spanish