New leadership announced for PwC deals team in Scotland

The changes mean that, along with the new additions, the leadership team now comprises Drew Stevenson, deals leader for energy, utilities, mining and infrastructure across the UK, and Paul Brewer who leads the firm’s corporate finance infrastructure and government business.

This puts the team at 80 strong - one of the largest in Scotland - and includes 11 partners and directors including specialists in valuations, debt advisory and forensics.

Jon Shelley has been a senior member of PwC since 2010 and has advised internationally on a range of sectors including energy, pharmaceuticals, business services, construction and industrials.

He was made equity partner in 2015 after building the Aberdeen oil and gas deals business and leading deals like sale of Neftex Petroleum to Halliburton and sale of PDMS to Inflexion Private Equity. He takes over the leadership of PwC’s corporate finance business across Scotland alongside his private business leadership role.

As well as being part of the Scottish Business Insider Deals Team of the Year 2016, he developed PwC’s global deal origination platform in the UK that aims to match large UK opportunities with significant international sources of capital.

Mr Shelley said: “While there is uncertainty around that can’t be ignored, there are also an incredible number of opportunities at the moment - both for companies looking to increase through acquisition and those looking to take on investment or become part of a larger organisation. This is across almost all sectors where Scotland is well represented.

“The pace of change is increasing and market volatility appears to becoming a ‘new norm’ - waiting for this to pass may be a long wait. Encouragingly we are seeing many strong Scottish businesses continue to seek opportunity, growth and technology to respond to this and lead in their markets, and we are seeing no shortage of investors and international buyers showing interest in this.”

Director Mark Addley is now leading the Scottish restructuring team following a series of impressive results with the PwC South East of England Deals team. His experience is across both the private and public sectors helping clients to develop and implement plans that will generate or recover value.

He said: “I am very pleased to be given the opportunity to help lead and develop the future vision for PwC Deals in Scotland with such a dynamic team that already has a strong market presence.

“I look forward to bringing a new perspective to the Scottish restructuring market and helping the evolution of our Scottish Deals team. We continue to have significant experience and depth within our restructuring team which includes specialists in debt advisory, pensions, working capital, rapid cost reduction, as well as traditional restructuring expertise.

“With increasing political and economic uncertainty, many management teams are undertaking cost reduction programmes to create efficiency and protect margins. We are experienced in working with business leaders to ensure that stakeholder value is enhanced and sustainable change is implemented.

“I am also seeing our highly experienced debt advisory team help borrowers who are looking to fund growth, acquisitions or simply to get a better deal than their current facilities. From a borrower’s perspective there is an increasingly complex choice when looking for debt capital and having a wide read across the available market, be that traditional or alternative lender markets, is invaluable for borrowers. Our team is well placed to provide impartial advice on the most appropriate financing options for a wide range of business types and sizes.

Jason Morris has been a Deals specialist since 1997 and partner since 2008 with M&A expertise in energy and infrastructure, renewables, construction and housebuilding, technology and private equity.

With 20 years’ experience of working on international transactions with both corporate clients and private equity and infrastructure investors.

He said: “Moving forward with Jon and Mark is a fantastic opportunity for us to remind the market of the wide breadth of our expertise and connections backed by decades of achieving positive results.

“We live, as the saying goes, in interesting times and it makes sense for companies to work with firms who can give them advice covering all aspects of their business - from companies seeking to acquire or needing to restructure to the business owner looking to sell or raise finance.

“We bring that expertise and this new leadership team allows us to tap into every aspect of business advice we have to offer companies and individuals.”

Lindsay Gardiner, regional chair for PwC in Scotland, added: “Our Deals team have been advising and helping clients in Scotland for many decades and I look forward to seeing how they take that to the next level over the coming years aided by Mark’s fresh thinking and new perspective on the market.

“Deals is an incredibly important sector for PwC across Scotland and, as we noted last year, the Brexit pause has started to lift so we wanted to make sure we were well-placed to support our clients opportunities in all aspects of Deal activity.

“This is a great move, not just for PwC, but also our clients.”