Corporate Finance Lunch 2019

Jo joined EY at the end of 2017 to raise the profile of the firm and to share its growth, expertise and success stories across the North. It was a significant change for Jo, whose previous 16-year career was as a business journalist – most recently she was Editor of TheBusinessDesk.com in the North West. However, she has found that the core elements of finding interesting stories, sharing them in an engaging way, making connections with people and helping others to connect, remain the same.

Jonathan Boyers is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal and leads the EMEA Corporate Finance practice. He has over 35 years of Corporate Finance experience, advising a variety of clients on company disposals, acquisitions and private equity work across a wide range of industries.

Prior to joining A&M, Jonathan spent 32 years at KPMG. During his most recent role as UK Head of Corporate Finance, the practice saw rapid growth culminating in achieving its most successful trading period ever in his final year in charge.

Jonathan has advised hundreds of companies and entrepreneurs regarding strategy and corporate finance transactions.  He has won the Northwest Insider Magazine Dealmaker of the Year award four times and has also received the UK Corporate Financier of the Year award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Some of Jonathan’s most recent clients include Rolls Royce, Nationwide Specialist Services, Healthpoint and Yearsley Logistics.

Mark leads EY’s  Northern Corporate Finance practice, focussing on the mid-market. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 15 years’ experience of advising entrepreneurial, corporate and private equity clients on acquisitions and disposals.

Dan is a senior Transaction Services Director based in our Manchester office. He has over 13 years of M&A experience with the firm, working on over 100 completed engagements including acquisition and vendor due diligence, reporting accountants and refinancing for both private equity and corporate clients.

Recent deals include:

• The acquisition of Sandcastle Care by Waterland PE
• The acquisitions of iForce Group, Speedy Freight and The Pallet Network by Eddie Stobart Logistics PLC
• Vendor assist on behalf of McBride PLC in respect of the sale of its personal care liquids division to Royal Sanders
• Acquisition of Nathans Waste Savers Ltd & Cookstown Textiles Recycling by Textile Recycling International
• Financial, tax and IT due diligence on behalf of Travel Counsellors Ltd in respect of its disposal to Vitruvian
• The acquisition of The Bridge (IT Recruitment) Ltd and Anderselite Holdings Ltd by Morson Group Ltd
• The acquisition of Armet Logistics Ltd by Abbey Logistics Group Ltd
• The refinancing of Global Reach Partners Ltd

The disposal of Brand Addition Ltd to Vitruvian

• • Claire is a seasoned Corporate Finance Director with 20 years experience of advising on Mergers & Acquisitions, corporate disposals and fund raising.  Much of her deal experience and focus is on private equity in the North West.
  • A Chartered Accountant with a career of Big 4 experience, Claire has worked extensively at Board Level and has worked collaboratively across both complex enterprise organisations and entrepreneurial businesses, including family businesses
  • Claire has worked across a range of sectors including consumer, business services, healthcare and financial services.

Ryan heads up Maven’s Manchester office, and is responsible for new private equity investments across the North of England and also sits on the board of a number of portfolio companies. He also manages the Northern Powerhouse Equity Fund which focuses on earlier stage companies. He joined Aberdeen Asset Management Private Equity in January 2007 having previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Manchester specialising in private equity transactions. Ryan qualified as a Chartered Accountant (FCA) with PricewaterhouseCoopers having graduated from Leeds University with a law degree in 1998.

Vic is Finance Director at The Alchemist, a group of premium cocktail bar and restaurants owned by Palatine Private Equity. Since she joined the business two years ago, the company has grown from nine sites to fifteen and has gone through a successful £16m debt fundraising to continue this expansion. Vic started her career at Deloitte then joined the private equity secondaries firm Coller Capital, before moving in to industry, taking roles in private equity backed companies.

Kieran is an Investment Director at Manchester-headquartered Palatine Private Equity. He is responsible for investing up to £30m of equity into growing businesses, and also currently sits on the board of Palatine investments Gusto Restaurants, ZyroFisher, and The Alchemist as a non-executive Director.

He has almost 15 years’ of private equity and M&A experience, having previously worked in corporate finance at BDO and also a structured debt team at RBS.

With over 30 years’ experience in the Retail IT services business, Neil worked for a number of the UK’s key Retail technology houses before joining Vodat as one of the founder directors in 2003. In 2012 he headed up the Management team that completed a Management Buy Out from the majority shareholder. More recently Vodat embarked on an M&A strategy to accelerate growth which resulted in the acquisition of Axonex Ltd, a Cisco Gold Partner.

Outside Vodat Neil enjoys cycling and golf alongside his love for Rotherham United.

Sid is a Partner in PwC’s North and Midlands Transaction Services team based in Manchester. He has over 20 years of deal experience working with Private Equity and Corporate clients across the region. He has undertaken 100s of acquisition, vendor and refinancing due diligence and vendor assistance projects for his clients across a variety of sectors most notably, Industrials, Business Services, and Healthcare and Pharma.
Recent transactions include: INEOS’s $1.1bn acquisition of Ashland’s Composite and BDO business and EG Group’s $1.725bn acquisition of Woolworths petrol forecourt business.