Liverpool champions of innovation

ICAEW North West, Liverpool City Region (LCR) Local Enterprise Partnership and Growth Platform will host the second LCR Innovation Investment Summit for stakeholders, business leaders and policy experts on 25 May.

The summit has been organised by Steve Stuart, prominent local corporate financier and chair of the Liverpool City Region LEP Professional and Business Services Board; Alex Pilkington, ICAEW North West; and Danielle Carrington of Growth Platform.

In November 2022, Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotheram announced a landmark partnership and action plan with Innovate UK chief executive Indro Mukerjee. Liverpool City Region was one of only two places in the country to pilot Innovate UK’s £15m Launchpad programme aimed at driving innovation beyond south-east England.

Rotheram and Stuart will welcome the delegates to The Spine – the landmark location for members of the Royal College of Physicians in the north of England.

Mukerjee’s colleague at Innovate UK, Nigel Walker, deputy director lending and investor programme, will then give a speech on the importance and relevance of investment zones and clusters.

Stuart will then chair the first expert panel, discussing funding innovation. This panel includes: Ken Cooper, managing director of venture capital solutions at the British Business Bank; and Shaun Beaney, editor of Preqin First Close; with Damian Mohammed, leader of north west strategic partnerships for the Centre for Process Innovation and member of the Liverpool LEP health and life sciences board, and Marion Bernard, chief investment officer at Northern Gritstone, expected to join the panel (at time of writing).

Janet Hemingway of iiCON (the Infection Innovation Consortium) will then be interviewed by Lorna Green on the importance of working in consortia.

ICAEW head of corporate finance, David Petrie, will chair the second panel on getting businesses from start-up to growth, and the need to attract more private equity and venture capital. This panel will include Natalie Kenny, CEO of the BioGrad Group; Tim Andrews, chief commercial officer, ORCHA; John Leake, business growth director at Sci-Tech Daresbury; and Elliot Skinner, ICAEW senior project manager.

Dr Jon Hague, VP of science and technology at Unilever and chair of the Liverpool City Region LEP innovation board, will make the closing remarks on the priorities for funding innovation in the city over the next few years.

ICAEW and Corporate Finance Faculty members must ensure they register early to secure a place. To do so, register at events.icaew.com

Corporate Financier digimag launches

This month marks the launch of a new digital version of Corporate Financier magazine. If you currently receive your magazine in print, but would prefer to receive it in digital format, please email helen.jones@icaew.com with up-to-date contact details.

Faculty members can update personal details, such as address and email addresses, at icaew.com/mydetails. To do so, they will need their ICAEW membership numbers.

The magazine will also continue to be available in print.

CFF Middle East Panel changes

Zubin Chiba of PwC and Adnan Fazli of Deloitte have joined the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty’s Middle East Panel.

Chiba is a partner based in Dubai, who heads up PwC’s corporate finance service in the Middle East. Originally from New Zealand, he has been in the UAE with PwC for 17 years, having joined the firm’s corporate finance team in New Zealand in 2002 and trained as a chartered accountant.

Fazli is a Deloitte corporate finance partner. Also based in Dubai, he specialises in energy and resources, focusing on the hydrocarbon value chain, power and utilities and related infrastructure. He has been in the region 17 years, having trained as an ACA with Deloitte in London.

In addition to Chiba and Fazli, the panel comprises: Transguard CFO Nick Beer; EY partner Richard Dingle (chair); KPMG partner Ossama Kayed; Grant Thornton partner Salmaan Khawaja; Mike Littlewood, sector head of professional services at HSBC in the Middle East; and Al Tamimi partner Andrew Tarbuck.

Debt for deals webinar

The Corporate Finance Faculty is holding a lunchtime webinar on 18 May 2023 on ‘What the future holds for debt in deals’.

The expert panel of advisers, investors and lenders will provide insights on a debt market in flux, and discuss what’s on the horizon for debt funding in transactions and who is funding M&A, private equity and infrastructure in 2023. How is availability and pricing of debt affecting pricing of deals? How is it affecting transaction timelines? What innovations are there around deal structuring to adapt to changing debt market circumstances? As well as expert analysis and practical perspectives, there will be a Q&A section at the end of the discussion.

The event will be chaired by ICAEW head of corporate finance, David Petrie. Alternative asset data company Preqin will present the latest statistics on debt funds providing leverage to transactions – value, volume and pricing.

The expert panel includes Fenton Burgin, Deloitte head of UK M&A debt and capital advisory, US/Europe M&A corridor; Chris Lowe, EY capital and debt advisory partner; Katie Beckingham, investment director at August Equity; and Alastair Jemmett, senior director in acquisition finance at Virgin Money.

Jackie Bowie, managing partner and head of EMEA at Chatham Financial, will give an overview of the economic backdrop to the banking market.

The webinar runs from 1pm-2pm on 18 May 2023. It is free for faculty members, who can book a place online at events.icaew.com

Corporate Finance Faculty AGM – 16 May

Members of the Corporate Finance Faculty are invited to attend the faculty’s annual general meeting, which will be held on 16 May 2023, at Chartered Accountants’ Hall in London. It will take place from 12pm until 1.15pm and a buffet lunch will be provided.

The meeting will include a short review of the faculty’s work on behalf of its members and ICAEW over the past year. Mo Merali, chair of the faculty, and David Petrie, ICAEW’s head of corporate finance, will also outline the faculty’s plans for the rest of 2023 and for 2024.

The new chair of the faculty will also be announced at the meeting. They will replace Merali, who has served in the role for five years.

Always very well attended by senior representatives of the faculty’s 85 member organisations, the AGM is a good opportunity to meet the faculty’s board, technical committee and its staff.

If you have any questions about the event – or on the faculty’s work – please get in touch with Debbie O’Neill at debbie.o’neill@icaew.com or on +44 (0)20 7920 3526, or Helen Jones at helen.jones@icaew.com or on +44 (0)20 7920 8599.