Begbies Traynor adds four Advisory Partners in London

The London Advisory team of Begbies Traynor has hired two Partners and promoted two more, as the firm looks to meet growing demand for its services. The news sees Anthony Brennan join BTG Advisory from CameronBarney and Paul Davies from Menzies, while Andrew Dalton and Sorca Hunt have also ascended to Partner.

At present, Begbies Traynor is enjoying a bull run, having grown both revenues and profit exponentially in the past two years. The firm’s latest results seem to show the decision to diversify its offering has paid dividends, reversing its faltering performance in 2016 and 2017. At the same time, however, insolvency work still makes up the lion’s share of the firm’s work. To counter this, the business has significantly invested in service diversification over recent years, bolstering its debt advisory, due diligence, transaction support, valuations and litigation offerings.

The changes have helped Begbies Traynor’s London Advisory team (renamed BTG Advisory in December 2017) grow its revenue contribution to the group’s London office from 5% in 2016 to more than 40% today. In order to build on this and further strengthen its hand in the UK market by diversifying its offering, Begbies Traynor has appointed four new Advisory Partners to its London team. According to a release from the consultancy, the appointments are central to its Advisory brand’s growth strategy and its commitment to further expanding its service delivery while broadening its client offering into new specialist areas.

Anthony Brennan brings more than 24 years’ experience in corporate finance and debt advisory to the firm, having most recently been a Partner at CameronBarney, following five years as Partner at Praesidian Capital Europe and four years as Head of Debt Advisory at Peel Hunt. At Begbies Traynor Advisory, Brennan’s key focus will be on debt advisory and private capital advice for clients, particularly in the area of raising finance for corporates. 

Paul Davies meanwhile returns to the firm having begun his career in restructuring at Begbies Traynor in 1999. Since then, he has held positions at Menzies, ReSolve Partners, Mazars, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and Grant Thornton. A specialist in risk banking, distressed investing and turnaround situations, his new role includes Diagnostic Business Reviews, Accelerated M&A, interim management, debt advisory and stakeholder negotiations, while leading the expansion of the firm’s restructuring offering. 

Andrew Dalton has been promoted to Partner, having joined Begbies Traynor 15 years ago. The last 10 years of his stay at the firm have come as part of its growing BTG Advisory wing. Dalton boasts extensive experience in a wide range of corporate finance and turnaround services for investors, lenders and key stakeholders, and he has also acted for a number of landlords in some of the recent high profile retail CVAs and, in 2018.

Sorca Hunt has been with Begbies Traynor for eight years, developing specialisms in property, contracting, healthcare, hotels and leisure. She also has strong restructuring experience, recently working alongside Mark Fry on Amicus Finance Plc and the implementation of a complex trading run off of its loan portfolio worth £0.6 billion. Prior to her time with BTG Advisory, she previously worked in the banking sector at AIB as a Corporate Manager and at Bank of Ireland as a Management Accountant.

Commenting on the appointments, Mark Fry, National Head of Advisory and Restructuring at BTG Advisory, said, “From growing technological and political issues, including Brexit, to tougher regulations and ever more stringent transparency and corporate governance standards to adhere to, management teams need to be at the forefront of understanding and addressing these challenges head on… Each of these four highly-skilled professionals has significant and specialist experience that will be invaluable to both new and existing clients alike, and as such we look forward to the future with great confidence.”