A corporate finance manager at HMT, Raju Hussain tells Jo Russell he has taken a structured approach to his career and enjoys the day-to-day contact when working with smaller clients
Why did you choose to train as an ACA?
I liked the idea of structure around my career progression. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in Economics from the University of Essex, I needed to know what the next three years would offer. I wanted to go to a well-respected and elite institution to get a professional qualification. I joined PwC’s assurance team in Cambridge and studied for the ACA – becoming a chartered accountant would be a good base, no matter what happened next.
I learned a lot from the course. Most important was double-entry accounting, which sounds like a simple concept, but when explaining things to CEOs and CFOs, using the building blocks of accounting helps to unravel complex problems in simple steps.
Why did you make the move into corporate finance?
I spent three years training in audit at PwC. I’d made some good relationships with clients and I enjoyed the team interaction, but I didn’t see my long-term future there.
As soon as I qualified, I switched to transaction services and moved to PwC’s Birmingham office. I wanted to develop more of a network and expertise in the deal space. Despite being an internal process, it was rigorous – director, senior manager and partner interviews, and a case study. I thought it would be good to build my technical skills before making the move to lead advisory, which was the goal.
I spent two and a half years in transaction services, working on huge deals, including the $12.2bn tech deal for Visma – the largest in Europe at the time. My due diligence skills were improving and I had big blue-chip experience, but I was missing the client interaction.
What made you realise you wanted a change?
While at PwC, I advised Away Resorts on its acquisition of a £5m caravan park. It was a small project, with a small fee, so I managed the day-to-day activities and had 90% of the interaction with management. There was no lead advisory, just two sets of lawyers. It was the first time I fully understood the process. It gave me the opportunity to project manage other work streams, such as tax. Although a small business, it was interesting to go deep into the numbers and pick up things that hadn’t been noticed, and so add value to them. That experience inspired me to want to start working with smaller clients again.
I wanted to move to a boutique corporate finance firm where I would have more day-to-day input with clients. They need more help – for many of them, selling a company is the one deal of their life. I joined HMT Corporate Finance in March 2021 as a corporate finance manager.
What’s your role now?
I source business and deals, generally with a partner. I work with management on financial models and business plans, project manage the diligence process, and help clients execute the deal. I’ve chaired investment meetings when it has been just me from HMT working with the company and the interested party on the other side. It’s great when you start to truly understand the business, the issues and the deal drivers on both sides.
Currently, I have a number of deals at different stages of progress. One is an e-car rental business that’s trying to raise £10-£15m through a Series A fund raise. It’s backed by good management and we have a number of different parties interested. I’ve been managing the investor meeting process, running tech demos and setting up the data room, and now I’m progressing to managing offers that will be coming in shortly.
And what are your ambitions?
Over the next six to 12 months, I want to get some completions under my belt and go through the process multiple times so that it becomes second nature. The partners excel at negotiation, and I want to be more involved in those discussions, as that’s where the value is added. I want to round off my skill set. Maybe in five years, it would be good to be on the buy side rather than be the adviser. It might also be good to have a go at the start-up space. I work with a partner, James Thomas, who does a lot of venture deals. I like the dynamics of those entrepreneurial teams – it’s inspiring.