A corporate finance specialist at north west accounting and business advisory firm HURST has been promoted to associate partner.
Ben Bradley joined HURST as a graduate trainee in September 2011 following a 12-month university placement.
He qualified as a chartered accountant in 2014 while working in the firm’s business services team, then joined HURST Corporate Finance in 2015 after a secondment with Moore Colson, an accountancy practice in Atlanta, USA.
Since his move to HURST Corporate Finance, Ben has advised on more than 20 transactions with a total deal value of £920m.
These have involved company acquisitions and disposals, raising growth capital, management buyouts and takeovers by employee ownership trusts, across a range of sectors including pharmaceuticals, IT services, engineering, manufacturing, healthcare and marketing.
Ben has progressed through the ranks to manager, associate director and now associate partner. His latest promotion, effective from April 1, gives him a seat on the HURST board.
Nigel Barratt, head of HURST Corporate Finance, said: “Ben’s promotion is deserved recognition for his hard work and commitment to helping clients to complete transactions even during the toughest of times.
“It is particularly pleasing that Ben has committed his career to HURST and that, in turn, we have provided him with the opportunity to learn and develop by working on interesting and challenging transactions.
“He is a great team player who is fun to work with, and we all look forward to seeing him succeed in this new phase in his career.”
Ben said: “HURST has provided me with a vast amount of experience and support in my professional development since I joined following a university placement in 2009.
“It’s a proud moment to be joining the board and I am excited for the future in my new role.
“We have a great team and I look forward to working with them and my professional network across the north west on many more deals in the future.”
His transaction highlights include advising on the 2016 sale of Comms-care, a north west-based provider of outsourced IT services, to Fortune 500 company Ingram Micro in a deal worth more than £50m.
Ben led the sale in 2019 of Cheshire-based Fastrak Retail (UK), which designs and manufactures lottery ticket dispensers and other retail point-of-sale display products, to Pollard Banknote, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
He was also the lead adviser on a deal last autumn which saw Altrincham-based engineering company Farrat Isolevel undergo a third generation family buyout in a multi-million pound transaction funded by HSBC.
