New partners broaden Catalyst’s offering

ADVISORY business Catalyst Corporate Finance has brought in two new direct entry partners, Andrew Shellard and Mark Farlow.

Shellard has more than 20 years of investment banking experience in the City where his focus has been on corporate acquisition finance and sponsor-led leveraged finance. Most recently he was a managing director at Barclays Capital.

At Barclays, where he was also head of debt advisory, he led four of the five largest LBOs ever completed in Europe and his clients included Gala Coral, Immarsat plc and Dubai World.

At Birmingham-based Catalyst, Shellard will head up a new debt advisory offering which will be focused on both corporates and sponsors who either have, or are looking to raise, between £100m and £1 bn of debt.

This will provide Catalyst’s clients with access to the wider range of debt products available at this level in the market, be they bonds, private placements or hybrid structures.

Farlow, similarly, has more than 20 years’ M&A experience, the last ten years of which have been as a partner at KPMG.

He has a particular focus on both the private equity market and the travel and leisure sector, leading the recent buy-outs of Ocean Outdoor, National Accident Helpline and XLN Telecom, as well as the sales of Interclean and EDS.

At Catalyst Farlow will head up the financial sponsor coverage team alongside Richard Sanders and Keith Pickering in the Midlands. The focus of this team will be to support sponsors whether that be the generation of off-market opportunities, buy-out advice or maximising value in sale processes.

Andy Currie, managing partner at Catalyst, said: “We are delighted with the recruitment of two first class individuals in Andrew and Mark. They both had many options open to them for their next career step and we are humbled that they see their future at Catalyst. 

“Their recruitment reinforces our belief in our business model and the opportunities open to us. Andrew and Mark’s skill sets will provide even greater reach and options to our client base.”