James Maclean, Director

James Maclean is a Financial Services Deal Advisory expert (15+ years) with core expertise in Banking & Capital Markets, FinTech and Asset & Wealth Management. James is able to grasp operating and business models rapidly - transitioning between macro and detailed levels; and enjoys rolling his sleeves-up to solve complex problems through the deal lifecycle.

James's advice has underpinned investment strategies and valuations, and protected value through proposed mitigating actions.

James has been seconded to both a leading UK high-street bank and a challenger bank in a Deal Advisory capacity, working closely with their internal Corporate Development teams. In the latest phase of his career, he business partnered with a private bank to deliver a comprehensive Value Creation & Realisation assessment.

Recently he completed the FinTech programme at Oxford Saïd Business School (including a short thesis on PropTech) - further building on his prior transaction experience within the sub-sector.

James' unique combination of capabilities and experience brings significant value to Deal Advisory and specifically Value Creation (pre- and post-deal) and Operations in Deals.

Experience

Working in partnership with the C-suite and Boards of high-growth Financial Services businesses to PLCs, as well as PE and SWFs (100+ deals, total EV of £30bn+, range £60m-£5.6bn), has provided James with deep sector knowledge, financial and operational best practices, and expertise in shaping insightful financial, customer and operational analyses. James prioritizes transforming these insights into actionable business outcomes to support key decisions, whilst also harnessing Value Creation opportunities to assist senior management in effectively propelling their businesses forward. He is experienced in:

Operations in Deals and Value Creation - buy-side due diligence, vendor due diligence (‘VDD’), vendor assistance (‘VA’), public to privates, value creation (pre- and post-deal), separation/ carve-out cost bases; and
Financial Due Diligence - buy-side due diligence and assistance, VDD, VA, IPOs, carve-out financials, equity raises and refinancings.

Notable client work and achievements

Landmark transactions

Successfully executed on large, complex and transformational deals (e.g., Barclays’ acquisition of Kensington Mortgages (EV £2.3bn), James Hay, backed by Epiris, public to private of Nucleus, the WealthTech platform, and subsequent majority sale of the combined business to HPS Investment Partners, CYBG’s acquisition of Virgin Money (EV £1.7bn).

Value Creation

Established pre and post deal Value Creation opportunities, including estimation, phasing, one-off costs to achieve and planning/ transformation initiatives e.g., Nationwide’s acquisition of Virgin Money; income synergies - Real Estate fund’s P2P of German real estate investor; cost out - Customer banking for CYBG & Virgin Money, TSB, Commerzbank - retail division.