Sunfish Advisory sets sights on disrupting M&A consulting sector
The founder of real estate and investment consultancy Six Degrees has set his sights on disrupting the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) market with the launch of a new consultancy. Led by co-founders Campbell Williams and Meg Dilnot, corporate finance consultancy Sunfish Advisory will aim to carve up the market share of larger, more established names as the M&A consulting sector experiences a period of high demand.
According research by Odgers Connect conducted earlier in 2017, rising economic and political pressures are fuelling demand from both private and public sector organisations for independent consultants, as companies seek lower cost out-sourced expertise for help with strategising in a continuously turbulent financial epoch. This has seen major growth in independent and boutique firms in the strategy and management consulting fields particularly. As M&A activity returned to high levels in the first half of 2017, following a slowdown last year on the heels of a bullish 2015, the situation seems ripe for market disruptors to offer an alternative to the largest, and more expensive advisories of the segment. 
Now, Campbell Williams, the co-founder of multifaceted UK advisory Six Degrees, has launched a boutique consulting firm in a bid to "disrupt" the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market. Sunfish Advisory will offer a broad range of services, all aimed at helping start-ups and SMEs to realise their growth ambitions – both organically and through acquisition. Key to Sunfish’s operations is a tailored service, pieced together for clients by partnering with other experts, agencies and talented freelancers, to theoretically deliver the end result that clients hope for, at a lower cost than larger consultancies.
Over the last 10 years, Williams has been involved in some 25 acquisitions in the telecoms and technology industry, including 19 at his former project Six Degrees. He also headed managing transformation and integration teams in that time, giving him key buy-side experience which he hopes to leverage in Sunfish’s bid to eat into the market share of more established M&A names. In addition to his buy-side experience, Williams has also led or worked on numerous successful fundraisers, covering both equity and debt. He fulfilled the role of content lead for the teaser, information memorandum and management presentations of Six Degrees’ successful exit, as well as having led the Commercial Due Diligence and Technical Due Diligence exercises with EY as part of Vendor Due Diligence at one time.
The boutique will also hope to benefit from co-founder Meg Dilnot, who joins Sunfish as Williams’ fellow Director. Dilnot boasts over 10 years of know-how, including practical experience in publishing, hospitality and tech, as well as her primary area of expertise of marketing. Having spent the last two years working in marketing and strategy at Executive Leaders, alongside globally-respected marketing experts, Dilnot is focused chiefly on customer centricity and business growth, in order to boost Sunfish’s client base early on.
