Partner Article

New head for Grant Thornton’s national corporate finance

Grant Thornton UK LLP has appointed Ali Sharifi to head its national corporate finance practice.

From the firm’s base in Manchester he will lead a team of 95 people across seven dedicated corporate finance centres in England – London, Reading, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Cambridge and Bristol - and a team in Scotland.

Mark Byers, UK Head of Advisory, Grant Thornton UK LLP said: “Ali will provide the leadership that ensures delivery of Grant Thornton’s corporate finance strategy. Our vision is to be the leading trusted advisor to our clients, providing the best in class advice and execution excellence to help them grow.”

Ali Sharifi, who is 44 and has been with the firm since 1999, said: “The team is already hugely successful and to build on this we shall continue to leverage Grant Thornton’s international network and strong relationships.

“Over 50% of our deals are conducted cross-border and we enjoy a strong market position in all the major economies, including the United States, China, India, Japan, Germany, and France.”

Ali became a partner at Grant Thornton in 2005 and will retain a day-to-day involvement in deals around the UK, and the North of England in particular. “I’m still working closely with clients on business strategy and executing specific M&A projects.”

Earlier this year Grant Thornton was confirmed by Experian Corpfin as the number one financial adviser to UK companies by deal volume for the third year running. Grant Thornton advised on 131 deals in 2013 and outperformed the market – recording an 8% increase on 2012 compared to the 2.9% uptick in total volume of industry deals last year.

Business support services and industrials were the busiest sectors for the firm with 36 and 35 deals completed respectively. Closely followed by the financial services and technology sectors with 24 deals each.

In the North West Grant Thornton’s 2013 projects included advising Sceptre Leisure on a £20m refinancing with Chenavari, a European debt fund making its first UK lend. Grant Thornton also advised the shareholders of Solfex, which distributes renewable energy systems, on a £38million disposal to Travis Perkins­.

The Manchester and Liverpool team also advised the shareholders and HSBC on the disposal of Gelert, a leading camping brand, on its sale to Sports Direct as well as sale of the vehicle recovery company Mansfield Group to Bidvest and Electricity Network Solution to Spie Sa.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .