Eaton Square is pleased to announce its growth into the UK with the addition of Lexington Corporate Finance.
Lexington Corporate Finance is a Cardiff-based boutique corporate finance specialist that provides expert advice and support to business owners thinking about exit and succession, or owners and senior managers with growth ambitions by offering strategic advice on fund-raising, mergers, acquisitions, company disposals, management buyouts and spin outs.
Lexington was named “Corporate Finance Advisory Team of the Year” at the 2021 Wales Dealmakers Awards and featured in the Wales “Fast Growth 50” for two consecutive years. Earlier this year, it tripled its office space and bolstered its staff count to 12 in a move to Columbus Walk, Cardiff.
Lexington is led by Gary Partridge, who has over 30 years leading transactions and delivering outstanding results for his clients. Mr Partridge founded Lexington in 2015 because he saw the opportunity to build a new Corporate Finance advisory practice focussed on the UK Mid-Market. He is passionate at building long-term, trusted client relationships and to provide results focused advice. Gary previously led PwC’s Corporate Finance team in the West of the UK and also held a global Acquisitions role in British Telecom’s M&A team. He is a previous winner of Insider Wales Dealmaker of the Year and a triple award winner for Corporate Finance Team of the Year.
Lexington is focused on:
- Consumer
- Business Services
- Healthcare
- Financial Services
- Industrial
- Technology
Gary Partridge and Nigel Griffiths
“I am very pleased to welcome the Lexington team to Eaton Square. Gary, Nigel, and their team have invaluable client experience and insight into southern England and Wales. This expands our capability especially in business services, industrial, and technology sectors. It further strengthens our ability to link investors and company sellers in the UK to opportunities and buyers around the world.” – Reece Adnams, Eaton Square CEO.
Gary Partridge, managing director of Lexington Corporate Finance, added: “As we have grown as a firm we have seen a considerable rise in cross-border requests, especially from the US as the dollar is currently so strong, so we knew we needed to partner with Eaton Square to capitalise on this and meet this demand. We anticipate that it will be a real catalyst for Lexington’s international growth and allow us to manage much larger deals – completing a handful of deals via Eaton Square this year will lead to substantial growth in our revenue.“To be the first UK firm in the network opens us up to an array of exciting opportunities as we continue with our ambitious growth strategy.”
With this alignment, Eaton Square has grown to 150 senior M&A specialists across the globe with 23 offices in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Spain, Japan and Malaysia. This is an important milestone for Eaton Square as we continue to grow our team and further reinforce our cross-border capabilities especially in Europe.
Lexington’s senior management team joining Eaton Square are:
Tom Coombes | Sinead Johnson | Thomas Edwards
Nigel Griffiths
Nigel is a Chartered Accountant of 30 years standing, having originally trained with EY, and joined Lexington’s leadership team in 2020. Previously, he had been a shareholder in businesses across the Technology sector for 25 years and led numerous acquisitions and disposals in his time on the “client” side of the advisory relationship as principal. In particular, in 1999 he was the co-founder of Fifth Dimension Systems (FDS) which grew from a start-up to £15m turnover via a combination of organic growth and a successful buy and build strategy until FDS was successfully sold to K3 PLC. In 2012, he invested in Certus Technology Group which quadrupled its turnover under his leadership, which he then exited in 2019 to SysGroup PLC.
Thomas Edwards
Thomas is a Director of Lexington and has significant experience in both Lead Advisory and Transaction Services. He has led a variety of key transactions both in the UK and Europe across a variety of sectors. He specialises in both trade sale and Management Buy Out transactions and has worked with a number of Management teams to lead them through to a successful transaction conclusion. Thomas has a first class honours degree in Accounting and Finance and is a Chartered Accountant. He also holds the prestigious ICAEW Diploma in Corporate Finance.
Sinead Johnson
Sinead joined Lexington as a Director at the start of 2022 following 20 successful years supporting growing SME and mid-market businesses in the UK Banking sector. She is a Chartered Banker and spent most of her career within some of the UK major Clearing banks (Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest) lending for growth, whether that be for M&A, succession planning or natural expansion. She has built up an enviable reputation in the UK and has recently advised businesses in the US and Europe. She is tenacious in delivering the best outcome for her clients and is passionate about building long term relationships where she can bring relevant parties together to find the best solutions.
Tom Coombes
Tom joined Lexington from KPMG and has more than ten years’ experience advising owner managed businesses. Tom is a Director in the Lexington team and has significant experience in Corporate Finance lead advisory and specialises in Trade and PE Sponsor backed buy-side and sell-side transactions. He has recent relevant deal experience in a range of sectors across the mid-market, advising on deals ranging from £5m to £125m in value. He is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Economics from the University of Bath.
Pablo Shorney
Pablo is an Associate Director at Lexington, having joined the team in 2019. He achieved his Chartered Accountant qualification with PwC where he previously worked in its audit practice, focusing on its private sector clients across its region in the West of the UK. Pablo has recent trade disposal and mid-market private equity experience, advising on both buy and sell side transactions. Pablo is a Spanish speaker and holds a first class honours degree in Economics from the University of Birmingham.
If you’re interested to speak with our team in Cardiff team, please contact:
- Gary Partridge – [email protected]
- Nigel Griffiths – [email protected]
- Thomas Edwards – [email protected]
- Sinead Johnson – [email protected]
- Tom Coombes – [email protected]
- Pablo Shorney – [email protected]
- Reece Adnams – [email protected]
