Private Equity News & Analysis

UK mid-market advisors beef up

UK mid-market activity is now at the same level as it was in 2005, but advisory teams at Deloitte and Close Brothers, both mid-market players, have been hiring this week, with the former luring ex-private equity professional Liam Camburn.

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Deloitte, one of the UK’s Big Four accountancy groups and business advisory firm, has hired Liam Camburn, formerly of UK mid-market firm Rutland Partners, as a director within its private equity transaction services team.

Prior to his tenure at Rutland, a firm focusing on underperforming businesses, Camburn provided financial due diligence services for Arthur Anderson, Deloitte and latterly KPMG.

Liam Camburn

Meanwhile, Close Brothers, a European mid-market corporate finance adviser, has beefed up its Manchester office with the hires of Ben Thompson as associate from corporate finance house Zeus Capital and James Hurrell as analyst from Christopher Street Capital.

Close Brothers, which counts among its clients HgCapital, Bridgepoint and Phoenix Equity Partners, hired Richard Pulford earlier this year to develop the bank’s Manchester presence.

Data from the Centre of Management Buyout Research shows that the UK’s mid-market, defined as deals between £50 million (€63 million; $93 million) and £500 million, was for the first half of the year on a par with 2005’s buyout levels.

In the first six months of 2008, 35 mid-market buyouts were executed with a total deal value of around £4.5 billion. By comparison, the whole of 2005 saw 69 deals with an aggregate value of just over £9 billion.