"What's Your Plan?" - three simple words that can shape your company's future... and the first question asked by WilliamsAli Corporate Finance when they sit down to talk with a business owner or management team looking to take the next step
Founding partners Abu Ali and Phil Williams provide a unique brand of commercial, intelligent advice to business owners and entrepreneurs across the North East and further afield. Their tailored service helps businesses and shareholders take control of their key transformational moments, whether starting up, winding down, looking to grow and secure funding or creating an exit strategy.
Since successfully completing their own buyout earlier this year, transforming from Leathers Corporate Finance to the newly branded WilliamsAli Corporate Finance, the company has continued to thrive despite the challenging recent backdrop. The main focus has been on cementing long term relationships, so that when clients need support, they know immediately where to go.
Both Phil and Abu are award-winning professional advisers and accountants, with extensive combined experience of deal-making, M&A, private equity, debt funding and financial leadership. Their practical experience of leading deal processes from start to finish, both in practice and from within industry, ensures they are perfectly equipped to deliver successful transactions for their growing list of major clients.
Phil said: “WilliamsAli offers a trusted, professional service of the highest quality to ambitious businesses in the region who are ready for their next step. Our independent, specialist service is geared towards business sales, acquisitions, private equity, fund raising and MBO’s. Our unrelenting focus is on achieving our clients’ objectives and building long term, rewarding and successful relationships.”
The last twelve months have seen several excellent examples of this, with Abu and Phil acting as the lead advisers to deliver deal successes including Okkulo and Equiwatt. Okkulo is an exciting and dynamic sports technology business. WilliamsAli has taken a close, day-to-day role in support of the management team and secured a complex and carefully planned initial funding round involving equity and debt finance from a number of angel investors. The business has thrived and Okkulo’s technology is attracting international interest. Discussions with several Premier League and European football teams are well underway as WilliamsAli continues to help to support and shape the strategy.
Equiwatt is a demand side response technology business, that has created a customer engagement platform designed to unlock the huge capacity potential of the domestic energy sector. WilliamsAli not only orchestrated a recently completed funding round worth a significant six figure sum, the firm has also been retained for ongoing support to help drive the project forward.
Abu said: “Okkulo and Equiwatt are perfect examples of our commitment to work intimately with businesses to ensure they are “deal ready”, bringing to the table our many years of experience. We like to get our hands dirty and we believe passionately in the importance of understanding our clients and their businesses. We care, we work hard, and we get involved on many levels. Our commitment to the end result is absolute.”
The pair of award-winning dealmakers have also been instrumental in other recent deal successes.
The private equity backed disposal of Smart Utility Management to Bionic was led from start to finish by the WilliamsAli team. The sale of the ambitious and high growth energy broker to the UK’s largest consolidator – alongside Phil’s extensive previous experience in the sector – have cemented WilliamsAli’s industry credentials and has led to the firm building a growing client list of brokers and private equity firms active in the sector.
North-East based Ocean Coatings, a pioneering marine and offshore coatings developer, is now pursuing an exciting international growth plan thanks to development capital secured at the turn of the year by WilliamsAli. Phil concluded: “These transactions show that North East entrepreneurs, investors and advisors can work together to create excellent outcomes. We are proud of every deal we have helped to deliver and we continue to meet new businesses every day who can benefit from our extensive knowledge and contacts. There is nothing more satisfying than finding out a client’s plan and then helping them to shape, develop and deliver it.”
