Business Exit Series: Exploring Trade Sales and Private Equity

Marie Pegram, Partner, Recruitment Accountants

Marie is Partner at Recruitment Accountants, as a recruitment sector expert, she knows the ins and outs of this industry and provides a fully encompassing service which includes everything from general accountancy and tax compliance, through to corporate finance and outsourced FD services. 

Marie actively supports the recruitment sector through their APSCo membership and other recruitment networks. She frequently speaks at industry events and is currently a judge for the prestigious APSCo awards, recognising excellence in the recruitment industry.  

James Price, Partner, UHY Hacker Young

James is an Audit and Corporate Finance Partner and has been working at UHY Hacker Young for over 20 years.
 
James heads up the firm’s audit function in the East of England and also delivers a range of advisory services to clients including transaction support, lead advisory and valuation services to clients. James has been awarded the ICAEW’s Advanced Diploma in Corporate Finance and its CF designation. A current area of interest for James is employee ownership, both through share & share option schemes, and the utilisation of Employee Ownership Trusts.

Logan Naidu, Founder & Group CEO, Kernel Global

Logan is the founder and Group CEO of Kernel Global, the parent company of award-winning international search firms Dartmouth Partners and Pure Search.

Dartmouth was founded by Logan in 2012 with a unique “Classroom to Boardroom” model aiming at uncovering future leaders early on in their career and partnering with forward-thinking companies to hire the best and brightest. Since inception, Dartmouth has consistently ranked as one of the UK’s fastest growing professional service companies. In 2018, he led it through private equity investment with Literacy Capital and in 2019, the leading Infrastructure and Governance recruiter, Pure Search, was acquired. This multi-brand, multi-niche approach has been formulated into what is now Kernel Global. The aspiration is to help people and businesses within the group achieve their full potential.

In 2023, Logan secured a second round of investment for the group from Three Hills Capital Partners. This will enable Kernel to grow further across the industry, expand its geographic reach into new territories with particular focus on the US and Asia, as well as future acquisitions to add to the brand portfolio.

Philip Ellis, Founder & Managing Director, Optima

Philip is the Founder & Managing Director of Optima and leads end-to-end sell-side and buy-side transaction advisory work, enjoying deeply embedded relationships with entrepreneurs, corporates and private equity investors in the human capital sector.

Value to clients:

1. More than 25 years of investment banking experience in the human capital sector
2. Excellent sell-side and buyside negotiation skills fine tuned over the decades
3. Highly versed in structuring very complex transactions
4. Extensive track record of achieving premium results for clients in the EMEA, USA and APAC regions 

Philip has completed deals for UK and overseas plcs and PE owners of human capital businesses. In 2001, he founded and floated Staffing Ventures on AIM, initially to back recruitment start-ups. He is a reputed judge of HR Tech and recruitment awards and regularly presents seminars on the subject of M&A.

Philip Duquenoy, Partner, Key Capital Partners LLP

Philip Duquenoy is a Partner at Key Capital Partners LLP (“Key”), an institutionally backed private equity fund manager backing fast growing profitable businesses across all sectors.

Philip has completed several staffing related deals at Key including: Nurse Plus (healthcare services, sold to Sovereign Capital in 2014), and Sparta Global (hire, train and deploy IT services, sold to Inflexion in 2020).

In addition to the investments made by Key, Philip has worked with and been an investor in three other international staffing businesses through to successful exit:

1. James Harvard International, now Hays Pharma, sold to Hays plc in 2007;
2. ProClinical, sold to Acacium Group in 2018; and
3. Xcede, sold to Universal Partners in 2020.