Mo joins from Grant Thornton in Cambridge, where he spent two years in their Advisory team – prior to which he spent four years in the audit department. The appointment comes on the back of a busy year for the localKPMG team, and provides additional resource to enable the firm to continue growing its Corporate Finance offeringacross East Anglia.
The East region plays a key role in overall UK M&A activity. According to Experian, there were 567 completed transactions in 2017, and 166 completed transactionsin Q1-18 – the East representing approximately 8% of total deal activity in the UK. Coupled with record levels of inward investment into the region and record levels of Venture Capital activity, the East of England remains firmly open for business.
Commenting on Mo’s appointment, Corporate Finance Director Chris Wilson said: “We are delighted to welcome Mo and his local network and knowledge to our growing Corporate Finance team. He joins us at an important time as we experience significant continued growth on the back of a very successful 2017.
“ Since the turn of the year, demand for high quality assets and companies has remained high, against a backdrop of favourable capital markets and low interest rates. Whether it be corporates with healthy amounts of cash on their balance sheets, or private equity institutions seeking to deploy their significant war chests, M&A players in particular, from across all sectors have been keen to invest and importantly, have been willing to pay the kinds of multiples not seen since before the financial crisis – stretching well into the double digits for those fast-growing assets that have a compelling growth story or which use cutting edge technology to disrupt a market – which is why Cambridge is such an important hub for these kinds of deals.
“Over the last 12 months, we have advised on a number of notable deals in the region, including advising Duxford based Volvo on the divestment of their Construction Equipment division to SMT Holdings, Hilton Food Group plc on their £80m acquisition of Icelandic Seachill, the acquisition of Suffolk-based Omar Homes by Rutland Partners and the investment in Lintbells by Inflexion.
“And we expect this momentum to continue – looking ahead we expect to see continued deal activity across the region. I look forward to being able to announce a number of further deal completions and strategic hires over the coming months – watch this space!”