The Corporate Finance Faculty’s Annual Reception – one of the biggest in-person events in the ICAEW’s calendar – took place at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the heart of the City of London last month. More than 200 guests were greeted by a champagne reception, accompanied by a string quartet, at the Grade I-listed 190-year-old hall.
David Petrie, ICAEW head of corporate finance, opened proceedings, then introduced the evening’s first speaker, Alan Vallance, who took over as CEO of the ICAEW in April 2024.
Praise for faculty’s work
Vallance emphasised the continuing importance of the faculty, and the significant value it adds to the ICAEW “against a backdrop of transformation across the global economy”. He outlined how the ICAEW has this year been repositioning itself with a refreshed strategy – Direction 2030. “The Corporate Finance Faculty is a backbone of ICAEW – and indeed of our profession – so the faculty’s work remains at the heart of our strategy today as it has done for more than 25 years.
“And while we are committed to being a voice of business, we do that as a professional body – with a proud legacy of educating and training chartered accountants in practice as well as business, and guiding and supporting them throughout their careers.”
Vallance added that the faculty had played an instrumental role in the design of the Next Generation ACA, which launched in September. “This was the biggest overhaul of our flagship qualification in more than a decade. In addition to being built around the themes of technology, sustainability and ethics, it includes specific corporate finance and deal-related content.”
He praised the faculty’s work in creating an AI hub, and hosting webinars on AI and deals: “The last AI webinar received more than 1,000 registrations – the highest number we’ve ever had, which I think speaks to the importance of this area of work and the high regard for the quality of the faculty’s insights.”
Clear focus
Guest speaker Jon Moulton CBE, a veteran private equity investor and Corporate Financier columnist, turned his fire on what he saw as “needless boilerplate statutory reporting”, asking if anyone in the audience actually read audit reports from start to finish. He said the proliferation of reporting, in particular around ESG matters, added little – if anything – to investment decision-making.
After joking that he hoped his speech wasn’t being recorded, he noted how the Trump administration’s “war on woke” had prompted many US private equity firms to backtrack on DEI disclosures that had been prevalent prior to the 2024 US election.
Back at home, and back to the ICAEW, Moulton noted that the Institute was straying into competing with business lobbying organisations, such as the CBI and the IOD. He questioned whether that fits with its remit as a professional body and whether more immediate concerns for members, such as how the profession will be changed by AI, should be the priority.
Grant Thornton’s Sue Nyman, head of risk management, was then recognised for more than 25 years of dedicated service to ICAEW and the Corporate Finance Faculty.
Alan Vallance, ICAEW CEO
Jon Moulton CBE
ICAEW head of corporate finance, David Petrie
Alistair Brew, investor at BGF (L), and Alan Vallance, ICAEW CEO (R), with Sue Nyman, who has given 25 years’ service to the ICAEW
Excellence in M&A
FTSE 250 company Hill & Smith won the ICAEW’s Corporate Development Award, an annual prize awarded for the best use of M&A to increase growth and shareholder value. Using a methodology devised by the ICAEW Corporate Finance Faculty in partnership with Bayes Business School, the winner is the business that outperforms the market most significantly.
Hill & Smith is an engineering company that designs and manufactures products for the construction and infrastructure industries. Though headquartered in the West Midlands, it has extensive operations in the US, and the award recognised its growth through targeted overseas acquisitions.
Hill & Smith is 200 years old and first listed on the stock market in 1969. In 2000, it completed a hostile reverse takeover of Ash & Lacy Group and internationalisation of the business started during the decade that followed. Today it has a market cap of £1.7bn and employs more than 4,500 people. An international success story for the UK, its US businesses contributed more than three quarters of 2024’s operating profit.
Caroline Smale, ICAEW’s deputy president, and Henry Whorwood, head of research and consultancy at Beauhurst, presented the award to Alan Giddins, non-executive chair of Hill & Smith.
“Over the last 20 years, M&A has been a key value lever for the business, typically buying family owner-managed businesses, often in the second or third generation of ownership, and typically in the value range of £10-£50m,” said Giddins, who has been with the company since 2019 and was previously global head of private equity at 3i. “Our decentralised operating model means that we are an excellent home to owner-managed businesses, and this award is recognition of our ability to effectively source, execute and integrate businesses into the group. All awards are good to receive, but one which links to creating shareholder value is particularly pleasing.”
David Petrie, ICAEW head of corporate finance, said: “Hill & Smith’s strategy of pursuing global growth through M&A has proven to be highly profitable for them and very well-regarded by the City. Local manufacturing and continued demand in the US have provided a natural hedge against sanctions and the other supply-chain issues which have impacted so many other companies around the world.”
Alan Giddins, Hill & Smith chair, received the faculty’s Corporate Development Award (below)
Alan Giddins, Hill & Smith chair, receiving the faculty’s Corporate Development Award from Beauhurst’s Henry Whorwood (L) and ICAEW deputy president Caroline Smale (R)
Photography by Erroll Jones
Next-gen corporate financiers
ICAEW deputy president Caroline Smale and Alistair Brew, investor at the BGF and chair of the Corporate Finance Faculty, presented awards to the top-performing students in the ICAEW/CISI Diploma in Corporate Finance exams last year: Darcy Byrne and Olivia Keyter.
L-R: Caroline Smale, Darcy Byrne, Alistair Brew, Olivia Keyter, Alan Vallance
Darcy Byrne, supervisor at ECOVIS Wingrave Yeats
What is your current role?
I am an audit supervisor for ECOVIS Wingrave Yeats, based in Soho, London. My role involves being the main client contact for the audit. As well as helping the audit team understand their roles and delegating tasks, I produce finalised audit files ready for manager and partner review.
How applicable was the diploma content to your role?
Although the diploma was not directly related to my role, it helped provide useful background information on business activities, so that I could provide guidance to clients looking to expand, raise finance or publicly list. ECOVIS has been winning M&A due diligence work recently, so this diploma will be of great use for these types of engagements in the future.
How was the pressure of work and study?
I started my career with RSM, and completed my AAT qualification in 2021, then joined ECOVIS and completed my ACA in 2023. But I had forgotten how much time and isolation revising requires. I am fortunate to have flexible working and so was able to spend hours in the evening revising, as opposed to travelling. Our managing partner, Stuart Hinds, and colleagues were very supportive of the qualification, providing study days so I could go to college and prepare in the final few days before the exams.
What are your aims for the future?
I would like to progress to manager level and learn new skills regarding project management on a larger scale and be more involved in the business side of audit, as opposed to the day-to-day audit work. I’d also like more opportunities to use my learning from the diploma on M&A and due diligence assignments.
Olivia Keyter, investment VP at Crowdcube
What is your current role?
My current role is VP Investment at Crowdcube. I’m based in Exeter and joined the company in November 2024. Crowdcube provides retail investors access to private equity investment opportunities, and access to funding for business. Before that I trained as a lawyer and spent seven years with law firm Ashfords in Exeter, working in the corporate team.
How applicable was the diploma content to your role?
I found the content increasingly relevant to my role, as we look at opportunities to open up secondary markets, providing access to growth company investments as well as startups. As a business we continue to grow, so the expansion strategies are relevant internally too. For our clients we are increasingly the sole source of capital, so evaluating valuation proposals and having a greater understanding of the factors affecting this in various sectors is extremely useful.
How was the pressure of work and study?
With a family, as well as a demanding role, I had to create new time for study before anyone woke up. I did it all between 5am and 6.30am with a strict schedule of pages to read. This meant if I got distracted by scrolling or making too many cups of tea I had to catch up later. It was very rigid, but it worked.
What are your aims for the future?
In my current role I will be keen to grow the scope of what I can offer internally and externally to support our own growth and expansion as a business. At the same time, my role is facilitating funding and liquidity for later-stage companies in the UK and Europe across all sectors. I am particularly interested in liquidity opportunities in the private markets, as patient capital tied up can become impatient with IPOs at a continuing low.
