Grant Thornton Partner Tarun Mistry leaves after 14 years of service

19 October 2017 Consultancy.uk

Tarun Mistry, Grant Thornton partner for its financial services corporate finance and automotive advisory team, has vacated his position at the accountancy and advisory business last week to seek new pastures. Mistry has denied any intent to retire. However, where he plans to head next remains uncertain.

Throughout a 14-year career in advising the leasing, consumer, motor and specialist finance sector, Tarun Mistry has been one of the orchestrating influences behind the majority of complex transactions, mergers and acquisitions within the UK industry in the past decade. Building up an advisory team at Grant Thornton’s accountancy practice, Mistry also helped pioneer ways for the business to engage with the leasing market, and has led on various advisory projects. In 2014, this saw him become Lead Partner for Financial Services - Corporate Finance in the firm’s London office, taking overall responsibility for Grant Thornton's Financial Services Corporate Finance practice.

Commenting on the surprise decision to move on, Mistry said, “I’ve been in the advisory market for 14 years and I’ve had an incredibly interesting career at Grant Thornton, for which I will always be thankful to them… When I joined there was no sector focused advisory service within the firm. It has been a fascinating and extremely fulfilling experience to take a figment of an idea for a sector-focused advisory business and see it develop into a leading practice.”

“It’s been great – the industry is full of warm, vibrant people who, as you will know, are very welcoming and engaging, and happy to talk to you about their business. Through the numerous assignments I have completed I’ve met so many people who I now class as personal friends,” he added.

In his 14 year spell at Grant Thornton, Mistry and his team advised on a number of notable deals within the market, which includes the sale of Anglo Scottish to Maxxia, the acquisition of Five Arrows by Paragon Bank; Shawbrook’s acquisition of Singers Asset Finance & Centric Finance; the sale of Mann Island and DSG Finance, and most of the private equity acquisitions in the UK’s asset and consumer finance brokerage and lending sector, as well numerous strategic advisory roles. On top of this, Mistry and his team also advised on a large number of the wholesale debt transactions for the consumer, motor, asset finance, and FinTech sector.

The future

While Mistry also said in comments to the press that he had enjoyed his time with the firm, he had decided that the time was right to seek fresh challenges, of an as yet undecided nature. He did not rule out becoming more directly involved in the leasing industry, which, with his extensive experience, would make him a key target for a number of players in the sector. He also insisted that he had no intent to retire, stating, “I’ve really got a decent chunk of my career left to add further value to the sector – hopefully another exciting chapter in my career to come.”

“I’ve enjoyed starting an advisory business and the entrepreneurship that went with its’ development. I have developed great relationships in the market, so I’m sure I can continue in some form of an advisory role going forward, the structure of which I don’t know yet.”

Grant Thornton, which employs over 38,500 people across 120 countries, saw distributable profits per partner drop from £398,000 to £344,000, at the end of 2016, despite making a profit before tax of £72 million. The firm said at the time that it planned on combating this by continuing to invest in its ‘Vision 2020’ strategy, which involved further development of its analytics capabilities, as well as a renewed focus on strategic accounts, and building development teams, along with bolstering key regional presences.