A strong focus on people was what attracted Laura Mott to a career with haysmacintyre when she graduated in 2006 – and 18 years later, as partner and co-head of transaction advisory services (TAS), her choice of a top 30 rather than a Big Four firm has certainly paid off. 

“It seems like a lifetime ago now, but it was down to the opportunities haysmacintyre offered – career progression and spotting early talent,” she says. “Its culture was and still is about team effort and collaboration across various service lines, with a real focus on people. That was what I was looking for as a graduate and, having now been through several levels of the firm, I see those things really are our core strengths.”

She started in the firm’s audit team, and trained as an ACA. She didn’t have a particular sector focus throughout a large part of her career, but at the time the firm’s TAS client base largely centred on the creative, media and technology sectors, and that’s where she gained a lot of experience.

The firm now specialises in four key corporate sectors: creative, media and technology; financial services; hospitality; and property. She was made partner in 2016, just 10 years after joining the firm, and started getting involved in transactions just before the promotion. Most of her transactions work was as a reporting accountant, on IPOs and reverse takeovers. She also worked on both buy-side and sell-side due diligence and financial modelling. 

Now, as co-head of transaction services, she leads on a broad range of corporate finance-related work – leading acquisitions or disposals, due diligence assignments and financial modelling, as well as reporting accountant roles. She has a dual role and still signs off audits, but largely only for listed companies, which ties into her reporting accountant experience, and “businesses where there is a largely external financing element”.

Ambitious plans

The average size of haysmacintyre clients has increased significantly since Mott joined the firm – its client base is now in the heart of the mid-cap space. “We’ve moved away from start-ups and incubators, which we were doing when I first joined the firm. Our clients have typically been through several funding rounds, and are private equity or VCT-backed scale-up opportunities or listed entities. We have a lot of referrals in the private M&A space, and we are providing more ancillary services – SPA reviews and warranties, completion mechanisms and earn-outs.

“Our team is really focused on being out in the market, finding transactions they can bring into the business. They’re ambitious and big team players, which is a real asset to the wider haysmacintyre business.”

Set up in April 2022, haysmacintyre’s TAS team has four arms: equity capital markets; M&A due diligence; financial modelling; and transaction support, including valuations. The TAS team links up closely with the varying tax teams to ensure that the deal is structured in the most tax-efficient way while also advising on the impact for the founders on an exit.

There is now a dedicated TAS team of 12, which Mott co-heads with Chris Cork. Since returning from a second 12-month maternity leave in April last year, Mott works a three-day week. “If a deals surge comes, and hopefully it will during 2024, I’ll still do three days a week, but I would certainly do more to get a deal over the line,” she says. “It’s all about flexibility on my part and on the part of the firm – give and take.” As well as being lead partner for some audit clients, she advises on transactions and is developing the TAS service line. It’s a busy three-day week. 

There is now a dedicated TAS team of 12, which Mott co-heads with Chris Cork. Since returning from a second 12-month maternity leave in April last year, Mott works a three-day week. “If a deals surge comes, and hopefully it will during 2024, I’ll still do three days a week, but I would certainly do more to get a deal over the line,” she says. “It’s all about flexibility on my part and on the part of the firm – give and take.” As well as being lead partner for some audit clients, she advises on transactions and is developing the TAS service line. It’s a busy three-day week. 

Co-head Cork has been with haysmacintyre 14 years. He trained as an ACA in the audit team, before being made partner in 2020. He has a focus on international deals, in particular for clients with US operations.

The firm has a TAS committee, made up of Mott, Cork and three other TAS partners: Andrew Ball, a senior hospitality partner; Ian Cliffe, a specialist in the creative, media and technology sector; and Jon Dawson who heads up the creative, media and technology sector. All three trained as ACAs with haysmacintyre. Mott is sector agnostic when it comes to transactions, but has a background in creative, media and technology, as it has been a big part of the firm’s client focus over the years.

Just as the new service line was set up, Osman Ghani joined as senior manager from Grant Thornton, where he had been a corporate finance manager, largely focused on equity capital markets and valuations. Tanya Yeremenko also joined from KPMG as a senior manager focused on M&A. As well as external recruitment, more junior staff members have moved into dedicated TAS roles from the firm’s audit service line.

“Since setting up TAS as a separate service line, we’ve worked hard on recruitment and on implementing new system structures, and rebuilding the website,” says Mott. “I think one third of my time has been spent on building the new standalone department, one third on transactions and one third on audit.”

The wider firm is making significant investment in ‘early years talent’, and TAS is looking at other ways to tap into that. This September, TAS will take on an intern for the first time: “We’ve had a good success rate with interns in other parts of the firm. They spend 12 months with the firm, then if they are successful we offer them a job when they leave university.” Recruiting graduates directly might be another consideration, but for now Mott says the preference is the ACA route for TAS staff.

The wider firm has also taken on school leavers on a five- rather than three-year training programme – that may be another future consideration for TAS. Looking at candidates with a more commercial than financial background may be another option as the team develops.

“Our staff gain commercial knowledge from working on transactions,” says Mott. “We want our people to be all-round advisers on deals, as opposed to just focusing on one aspect of it. In our engagements there is a lot of handholding, and the partner will be involved from start to finish. We want our more junior staff to learn from the experience of working with them.”

Market outlook

Last year, the team advised on one of the few IPOs on AIM – Tan Delta Systems, which floated on the AIM market, with a £19m market cap, and raising £6m. In 2022, haysmacintyre was reporting accountant on nine floats on AIM, making it the busiest AIM adviser – albeit in a very quiet year. The current markets are difficult and businesses that are not VCT qualifying may find it more difficult to IPO. She says the big question is when pension funds will start to invest in AIM stocks. “You need one of the big pension funds to start and then you’d hope more would follow because we need to improve the liquidity across our stock markets.”

Mott works closely with the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and is involved in a number of their sponsorships, including Finance Director and Audit Committee Chair dinners. “The London Stock Exchange and the QCA are trying to re-energise UK public markets. Why are companies thinking about going to the US to float? Why would you, unless you were huge? There’s a massive difference between our stock exchange and NASDAQ, and we need to educate businesses about that.”

She says London is very much open and ready for business: “It’s been tough, but markets have been hard before. During COVID-19 times people thought: ‘When will this end?’ But then there was a huge surge of businesses that floated in 2021. We will get a big resurgence.” 

The pipeline of businesses looking for funding to get to the next stage is huge, but valuations are the sticking point, Mott explains: “For entrepreneurs, it’s a balance – why am I going to do my dilution now? It will pay better later, but the business needs the capital.”

Meanwhile, “a lot of clients are talking to us about the best, most attractive option for them. What do they want to get from the business? How much involvement do they want? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, which is why they all need good advice – and must be ready to go when the time is right.”