Southampton: BDO expands growing corporate finance team

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP is continuing to invest in its active regional corporate finance team based in Southampton with two new appointments. Ben Knowles and Ben Potts bring strong experience to the team, which has advised on 25 deals worth £1 billion in the past 12 months.

Knowles joins from HSBC and has advised businesses in the Southampton marketplace for over 12 years. Originally qualifying as a chartered accountant, he spent six years helping local businesses raise finance and assisting them with international growth plans.

He commented: “Knowledge of the international banking system makes a real difference to those clients wishing to raise funds; not just in a transactional environment but also in exploiting expansion opportunities. It’s great to be back in accountancy practice.”

Potts joins from PwC in Plymouth, where he spent three-and-a-half years. He said: “I will be bringing my experience of a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, software and marine to the team. I’m very excited to be joining BDO at a time when activity levels are so high.”

Nationally, BDO was the most active M&A adviser in 2014 (as ranked by Thomson Reuters), and has continued to be so locally, with the team’s £1b worth of deals which included clients 3SI (on the acquisition of Typhoon) and Rayner Intraocular Lenses (which acquired Aptissen’s Swiss headquartered ophthalmic business).

Darren Phillips, director of transaction services at BDO in Southampton, commented: “It is a vibrant period for corporate finance at BDO, particularly with mid-market companies that are going from strength to strength in the central south. Activity remains unabated with the current extremely healthy number of deals we are advising on totalling some £300 million.”