Growth prompts expansion at Mazars

INCREASING demand in the corporate finance market has led to significant growth in the Mazars’ Midlands transaction services team.

Julian Clough , who joined the team in October last year after many years of leading transaction services teams across the Midlands, has now been followed by Adam Foster.

He arrives as a manager and, like a number of other colleagues, was formerly with Baker Tilly and RSM Tenon.

Clough said: “It was always our intention to grow our transaction services team and build on the excellent reputation established by David Preston and the team in Birmingham. Adam’s appointment has come at a very busy time for us and gives us a truly Midlands wide coverage.

“We have been busy and we have seen a real change in the market over the last nine months. We are now seeing the range of funding options with banks, private equity and increasingly capital markets being active. This adds to work for corporate buyers who continue to look for quality businesses across many sectors.”
 
The recruitment follows closely on growth in the wider corporate finance team across the Midlands and Milton Keynes which now draws on the expertise of five partners and 15 professional staff. The team services clients out of Mazars’ offices in Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, and the new Leicester office.

Newlife opts for Crowe Clark Whitehill

NATIONAL audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill has gained a new client, Newlife. The Solihull financial services provider was won in a joint pitch by the Cheltenham and Midlands offices following a referral by the Reading office.

Cheltenham partner Martin Regan will handle the audit side with Midlands colleague Rob Gunn taking charge of corporate tax.

Newlife is particularly known for its equity release products such as lifetime mortgages and home reversion plans. The business was formed in 2003 and is headed by executive directors and founding shareholders Peter Lucas and Peter Turley.

Regan said: “We are thrilled to win Newlife’s business. It is a go-ahead firm with very experienced operators at the helm. And, given the housing market recovery, its future is surely bright.

“We are looking to build a strong relationship – tax is a very important consideration.”

Grant Thornton opens its doors to students

GRANT Thornton has opened its Birmingham office to 10 students to give them an insight into a career in accountancy.

The Year 12 students, who came from a wide range of schools across the West Midlands, including CTC Kingshurst Academy, Solihull, King Edwards VI College, Stourbridge and St Peter’s Collegiate College School, Wolverhampton, spent two weeks with the firm’s audit, tax and advisory teams, learning about the variety of skills and expertise required to advise the firm’s growing portfolio of private and public sector clients.

Becky Eagle, audit director at Grant Thornton, who devised the programme and looked after the students during their internship, said: “We ran a pilot of this project last year which was very successful and led to us offering three out of the five students a position to train to become a qualified accountant with the firm.

“Grant Thornton is well-known for its training programmes and in addition to our annual autumn intake of new trainees we were keen to work with a broad spectrum of West Midlands’ schools and give young people from varied backgrounds this opportunity.”