Zeus Capital, the independent investment banking boutique, announces senior appointments in Corporate Finance in London assisting its strategic aim of becoming the UK mid-market leader.
Following the continuing success of the Corporate Broking business, which since opening in London five years ago has become the leading broker to UK mid-cap corporates, Zeus plans to complement this offering by building the leading UK mid-cap Corporate Finance franchise. The practice will cover all aspects of corporate finance, including Mergers & Acquisitions (“M&A”), Debt Advisory and Restructuring, working with existing and new clients across both the private and public markets.
Gareth Davies has joined to lead the development of the Corporate Finance business in London, Dane Houlahan joins as Managing Director to help build out M&A and Jonathan Broome is joining this September to lead the Debt Advisory team. They will work alongside Mark Barrow, who joined last year as Head of Private Equity Coverage in London, and the long-standing Corporate Finance team based in Manchester. Further hires are anticipated in due course.
Gareth was latterly Head of Financing and Restructuring Advisory for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Greenhill & Co. and prior to that was a Managing Director at Close Brothers Corporate Finance focussing on M&A in the UK mid-market. Having set up and run leading teams in M&A, Debt & Equity Financing and Restructuring he is fully conversant across all disciplines of corporate finance in both the public and private markets.
Dane trained as a corporate lawyer in Australia. He joined KPMG Corporate Finance in the UK in 2004 where he was a senior Partner advising on a large number of mid-market trade and private equity focused transactions across a range of sectors. At KPMG he ran the London Regions M&A business. He also spent four years living in Aberdeen running the Oil & Gas M&A business and led the sector globally.
Jonathan was latterly Head of UK Debt Advisory at Lincoln International for over 7 years and prior to that was a Managing Director at Close Brothers Corporate Finance. He has twenty years of experience in the financial markets, including over 15 in Leveraged Finance and Debt Advisory. He is one of the most prolific practitioners in the Debt Advisory market having completed on average a transaction every month for the last six years.
John Goold, Chief Executive Officer of Zeus Capital, commented:
“This is a very exciting time for Zeus Capital. We have exceptional momentum in the Corporate Broking business with £5bn raised in just over 5 years. To complement this with a first class Corporate Finance offering means we can now provide the full suite of corporate services to our clients, irrespective of whether they are or want to be in the public or private markets. I look forward to working closely with the new team and exploiting the clear synergies between Corporate Broking and Corporate Finance for the benefit of all our many clients.”
