Duff & Phelps appoints Partners in debt and transaction arms
Duff & Phelps has bolstered its debt and transaction advisory arms with two senior appointments. Jacco Brouwer and Paul Martin join Duff & Phelps, with over 50 years of experience between them.
As an international consulting firm specialising in restructuring and corporate rescue, Duff & Phelps also works with clients in the areas of valuation, corporate finance, investigations, disputes, cyber security, compliance and regulatory matters, and other governance-related issues. The firm has enjoyed rapid growth across its service lines in recent times, and in order to keep up with demand, it has committed to enhancing its team with new expertise.
In the firm’s debt advisory arm – which is enjoying heightened activity in a market where the number of companies at risk of insolvency is exploding – Duff & Phelps has recruited Jacco Brouwer as a new Partner. Brouwer brings 27 years of experience in banking and financial advisory work to the firm, and will lead its European debt advisory wing as Managing Director, working closely with the restructuring advisory practice to help companies find new funding from sources beyond their existing lenders.
Brouwer spent the last five years with global business advisory firm AlixPartners, where he headed up debt advisory. Prior to AlixPartners, he held the same role at Zolfo Cooper, and was also one of the co-founding partners at Versatus Advisers, a London-based debt advisory and restructuring boutique. Earlier in his career, Brouwer also ran ABN AMRO’s European Leveraged Finance team in London, where his team arranged and underwrote senior, mezzanine and high-yield financings for leveraged buyouts and corporate borrowers across Europe.
David Whitehouse, Managing Director and Head of UK Restructuring Advisory, Duff & Phelps, stated, “He has extensive experience in helping clients identify competitive sources of finance and has overseen the debt structuring and negotiation process to secure the best possible deal. It’s therefore a natural fit for our teams to work together and we look forward to delivering successful projects together.”
Meanwhile, Paul Martin has arrived as a Managing Director in Duff & Phelps’ transaction advisory practice. The new Partner will now lead the practice from the firm’s London office, making use of his more than 25 years of experience in financial and operational deal advice. During his career he has led projects and teams across all aspects of the deal life cycle from origination, due diligence execution, post-deal control, performance improvement, exit readiness, sell-side support through to exit.
Martin arrives at Duff & Phelps on the back of a six-year stay with Grant Thornton, where he was a Partner in the firm’s transaction advisory services practice, driving the practice’s growth into the private equity and large corporate space. Prior to Grant Thornton, Martin was a Partner in the transaction support group at EY, and also spent 15 years with the company’s Big Four rival PwC, where he was latterly a Director.
Ray Newman, Managing Director and Global Leader of Transaction Advisory Services at Duff & Phelps, commented, “Paul is a recognized transaction leader who provides a hands-on, commercial approach and has a proven track record of maximizing value for clients. As our practice continues to grow, having someone of Paul’s caliber on the ground in London is instrumental in expanding our transaction advisory service offerings in the UK and Europe as well as globally and I am thrilled to have him on our team.”
