5/7/2023 0 Comments Presentation focuseyI’m in a thriving industry, with a great team and I want to remain part of it for a long time. People are also more aware of the importance of being prepared for a process. They are thinking about whether to sell up, retire or pass down to family. We want to keep that momentum.ĬOVID-19 has made people reflect on what’s important to them. We have worked on some of the most notable deals in the region, which have received national and international interest – most recently the nursery group Kids Planet and global payments company CMSPI. We’ve been investing heavily and expanding the team at all levels, including two new partners. Having a formal structure and regular focused conversations makes that progression easier. At EY, I have a partner sponsor who helps in making sure I get the right opportunities and stretch myself. I wanted to get involved with a range of projects to accelerate my experience and development as fast as possible, which helped build my internal network and profile, whereas if I’d moved, I would have had to spend additional time building trust and my internal CV. I’ve been driven and have pushed hard, which has helped me progress quite quickly. If you find the right home and are provided with diverse opportunities, there’s no reason to move on. I value highly the focus EY has on its people and its purpose. What are the main benefits of staying with EY? For every client I work with, I really want to get them the best result, the best deal. My parents set up their own businesses and sold to trade and private equity, so I appreciate the hard work, the heartache and the challenges overcome to get a business to a stage of realising that value. I enjoy working with vendors, as I grew up around entrepreneurs. Being able to add that is a little more rewarding, as the dynamics are different on the buy-side. Sell-side often gives me the chance to work more closely with entrepreneurs over longer periods of time – getting the equity story ready and finding their magic number, and ultimately the right home for their business. Do you prefer working for vendor or acquirer? It was a competitive deal with national interest, as it’s a very hot sector. The last deal I was involved with – which I jointly led with another director – was securing investment for Distology, a Manchester-based cyber-security distributor, from NorthEdge Capital. I’m involved across the piece, from origination to pitching to completion, often working with a partner and then leading the team below me. In October 2021, I became a director in the Manchester M&A team covering the North of England, working on buy-side and sell-side transactions. I learned at this early stage that although all the financials might work and a deal makes transactional sense, there are other key factors at play, such as the desire to grow the business, opportunities and synergies for sourcing and supply, and the roles of the shareholders going forward. The company had already done a beauty parade, but I managed to convince him to let us pitch and showcase the value we could add. I actually originated it, through the father of an old school friend who was acting as adviser to Ansell Lighting. It was the sale of Ansell Lighting, a Warrington-based business, to Tokyo-listed Endo Lighting Corporation, for £38m. While there, I was offered a permanent position and finished my training contract in corporate finance. During my training, I expressed an interest in – and was subsequently successful in securing – a secondment to the corporate finance team in Manchester. I graduated from the University of Warwick and joined EY in Liverpool on its audit graduate programme in September 2011.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |