Pinsent Masons boosts Corporate Finance offering with double City hire

Julian and Gareth both join from Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP (BLP) and specialise in advising investment banks/corporate brokers and other intermediaries active in the London markets (Main Market and AIM) and internationally. They also advise UK and international corporate clients on their corporate finance and public and private M&A requirements. They bring a wealth of transactional experience across a variety of geographies and sectors which complements the strengths of Pinsent Mason’s corporate finance team. Recent transactions undertaken by them include acting for Numis Securities on the IPO and admission to the main market (premium segment) of the London Stock Exchange of Ten Entertainment Group, Liberum and Peel Hunt on the £225m fundraising for NewRiver REIT, Investec and Canaccord on a secondary fundraising by Haworth Group, Betsson AB in connection with its recommended takeover of NetPlay TV, BCA Marketplace (formerly Haversham) on its £1.2 billion reverse takeover and move up to the main market and Sanne Group on its IPO and admission to the premium list of the main market in London.

Pinsent Masons is ranked number 2 in the Adviser Rankings for the total number of stock market clients and has a core team of 15 partners advising on corporate finance matters.  The appointments of Julian and Gareth will enhance the firm's credentials with investment banking and intermediary clients ensuring that the firm will have an even greater spread of mandates across markets and the ability to provide clients undertaking corporate finance activities with market-leading advice.

Rosalie Chadwick, Head of Corporate Finance at Pinsent Masons, said:

“These appointments are absolutely consistent with our ambitions and reflect the huge strides we have made in becoming key advisers when clients are undertaking their most significant "bet the farm" corporate finance transactions.  In the past year we have advised on 6 transactions having a value exceeding $1bn each, ranging from Skyscanner's sale to Ctrip.com International, to AMC's acquisition of Odeon Cinemas and the takeover of Ithaca Energy by Delek.  We have advised many other listed clients on significant transactions too and are currently advising long-standing client IP Group on its £270m fundraising and separate offer for Touchstone Innovations.  Julian and Gareth will be focusing on building our practice with investment banking and intermediary clients and will have the full support of our corporate finance team in doing so.  This is not the end of our expansion and we anticipate making further appointments across the team in the near term.” 

Alexis Roberts, Partner and Head of the Financial Services sector at Pinsent Masons, said:

"One of the firm's key routes to market is through our sector expertise and we continue to invest in talented individuals who can make a significant contribution to the achievement of our vision to be recognised as an international leader in our global sectors.  David Young, Hammad Akhtar and Kieran Toal have all joined us as partners this year and the appointments of Julian and Gareth reinforce Pinsent Masons’ commitment to growing our financial services capability and reputation in the City. ” 

Andrew Masraf, Global Head of Transactional Services at Pinsent Masons said:

"We are delighted to have such ambitious and talented people wishing to join us as we build our practice in the strategically important investment banking and intermediary markets.  With a significant number of partners joining us laterally and new offices having been announced for Dublin and already opened in Australia in 2015 and in South Africa, Germany and Spain in recent months, Pinsent Masons is making a bold statement of its intent to become a leading City firm."