EY raids Big Four rival to strengthen Birmingham corporate finance team

EY has bolstered its corporate finance team in the Midlands following a raid on one of its Big Four rivals.

The professional services has taken on Neil Meredith, a 20-year veteran of the M & A market in both the East and West Midlands – the last 12 of which have been with KPMG in Birmingham.

Meredith, who joins as partner, has experience advising a broad range of companies across various different sectors, with a particular focus on leisure, hospitality and other operational real estate markets. His core focus is providing M&A sales advice to major corporates, private equity backed businesses and privately owned SMEs.

He has also had dealings with international buyers having sold businesses to Chinese, US, French, German and Italian buyers in the past 18 months.
 
EY said his recruitment was part of its strategy to grow its Midlands practice and its regional corporate finance business. The firm has grown by nearly 7% in headcount over the past year and now has more than 900 people based in its Birmingham office at One Colmore Square.
 
Meredith said: “As the fastest growing Big Four firm with a fantastic client base in the Midlands, the opportunity to join EY was too good to miss and will provide an excellent platform to develop and grow the regional M&A practice, as well as build the team here in Birmingham.”
 
John Houlden, partner in EY’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice in the Midlands, said: “Our regional business has gone from strength to strength, reflected by the continued investment we’re making in our people, business and brand, as well as the confidence we’re seeing in the marketplace.
 
“With his outstanding record of guiding and closing high quality transactions in the local market, we’re delighted Neil has joined EY in the Midlands and I’m confident his approach and reputation for building trusted client relationships will help us further develop our client base in this area.”