Knights Professional Services continues to strengthen its non-legal offering following the appointment of two highly-regarded corporate finance advisors and chartered accountants from the North West to its head office in Staffordshire.
With more than 35 years’ combined experience, Tim Scott and Julia Stokes have been recruited to the role of partner and senior associate to develop Knights’ corporate finance offering as part of its ambitious plans for growth.
Both will be working with Knights’ existing clients across the North West region, including Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire and North Wales providing them with strategic advice on growing their businesses and preparing them for succession. They will advise on the full suite of corporate transactions including acquisitions, disposals and management buy-outs.
Tim, who will be based at the Chester and Newcastle-under-Lyme offices, has a wealth of experience in corporate finance and private equity in the owner-manager space.
He has advised on more than 50 transactions throughout his career in the ‘sub £50 million market’, has been a finalist for, and won, prestigious awards at the Manchester Society of Chartered Accountants’ Annual Awards and Insider North West Dealmakers Awards.
“During my career, a number of owner managers have said it would be great to have all transactional advice including corporate finance, tax and legal in one place and at Knights we can now offer that full service solution on deals,” he said.
“I have a real passion for local businesses and to be able to provide robust high-quality advice on transactions locally, rather than business owners having to travel into London or Manchester is a unique proposition and will be a real advantage to our clients.”
“Before my career move to Manchester, I spent more than seven years working in the Staffordshire area so I’m really excited to be returning to an area I already know so well,” said Julia.
“I’ve spent the last ten years focussing on transaction support and worked primarily with private-equity funders, banks and corporates, supporting more than 60 transactions.
“Recently I supported Camerons Brewery on its £30 million refinancing with HSBC Bank Plc and Foresight Group LLP on its recent investment in Euxton Group Limited.”
Having spent two years working together in previous roles, Tim and Julia are excited about the opportunity to develop a major new service line in the business.
David Beech, CEO for Knights said the appointment of Tim and Julia is a pivotal point in Knights growth.
“Both Julia and Tim bring a wealth of expertise to Knights that will allow us to deliver a greater breadth of non-legal services that our clients are asking for,” he said.
“Recently we appointed more people to our residential and commercial planning team and accountancy and corporate finance are other areas we are looking to grow further.”
