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CORPORATE FINANCE ADVISER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SPONSORED BY HSBC WINNER Ian Barton of HMT
Above: Ian Barton of HMT
Left: Ian Barton with Jon Stradling (right) of sponsor HSBC
Now it was back to the performance of individuals as the criteria for the next award.
It was also something of an individual contest between two candidates from the same firm – HMT Corporate Finance. Colleagues Ian Barton and Andrew Thompson had been shortlisted this year.
Joining them among the title contenders were Simon Davies of Spectrum and Nick Rogers of James Cowper.
Andrew Thomson was the reigning ‘Corporate Finance Adviser of the Year’ title-holder having won last year, and since he was a joint winner in 2012, and had achieved the shortlist for the third year running, he was no doubt hoping to add to his trophy shelf evening
According to one of his several award nominators, Thomson was said to stand “head and shoulders above the pack” in the Thames Valley. Another client pointed to Thomson’s ability to “stay focused” to achieve deal completion with minimal fuss.
Barton was singled out for his ability to complete high-value deals. One nomination noted that he has advised on two substantial transactions both involving more than £100 million debt and equity and “no-one outside the large advisory firms” is doing deals of that size. Another
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nominator said Barton was “pivotal to a successful exchange …guiding the parties through a complex series of negotiations”.
Davies of Spectrum was nominated for his work on the cross-border deals for Esdevium Games/Asmodee (€143m) and Impatex Freight Software disposal, the sale of Blakell Europlacer and, most importantly, the high-profile MBO of Virgin Wines from Direct Wines. “Highly professional and accessible”, said one nomination.
Nick Rogers, who has 20 years of corporate finance experience, led the James Cowper corporate finance team of six, with its “strong offering across the board”, through 20 deals in 2013, a record-breaking year for the firm.
Representing sponsor HSBC, Jon Stradling, head of corporate banking for the Thames Valley, announced the winner as “someone who has gone from a Big Four firm to help build a leading corporate finance boutique, and who last year led the firm’s biggest deal yet, and has an equally large transaction set to close soon.”
Colleagues on the HMT table, had guessed the individual, and were already rising to celebrate the success of a colleague. Thomson smiled and shrugged his shoulders as Ian Barton kept the title within the HMT camp this year.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2014
The victorious Barton, partner with HMT was delighted: “I’ve been nominated several times but never won before. I was at Deloitte for 10 years and have now come to a smaller firm and helped establish it by growing within it with my own team, and this award seems like a validation from my clients and peers.
“A lot more is down to you within this type of firm, from the people you hire to the clients you work with. Getting to know clients, getting deals over the line and winning awards makes everyone feel great, because it’s not just about me. It is about the team effort, because you can’t do this job on your own.
“We’ve doubled the size of our business in the past 12 months, recruited about a dozen people, and are growing quickly. The market is coming back and we are looking forward to exciting times ahead.”
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