Growth Company Investor, 1 August 2009
By Robert Tyerman
People: View from the West
Simon Raggett, chief executive of financial adviser Strand Partners, sounds confident after clinching the latest in nearly 40 AIM-nominated adviserships for the firm, which he and colleagues bought out from its founders three months ago. The new client may be bombed-out and loss-making Ukrainian property venture KDD Group, but that is typical of the challenges relished by the new Strand, which Raggett, executive director Stuart Faulkner and others have now recast from an investment house into a ‘deal-oriented adviser’.
Founded in 1993 by Richard Fenhalls, veteran financier and ex-boss of investment bank Henry Ansbacher, and with tycoon and Tory party finance man Lord Ashcroft in the chair, Mayfair-based Strand had carved out a name for itself as an independent operator in the smaller company world. The firm, which still has something of a resources leaning, floated oil equipment concern Velosi and iodine specialist Iofina among others, as well as helping to merge Victoria Oil & Gas with Bramlin and selling Celtic Resources to Russian steel giant Severstal.
Raggett recalls Strand’s role in putting the property-investing Candy brothers into Metals Ex and claims a key part in sorting out scandal-hit Regal Petroleum by bringing in ex-Shell luminary David Greer. Noting that Strand’s directors’ average age is 35 to 36, he says the buy-out has helped incentivise staff and make Strand profitable.
Raggett insists that clients and colleagues alike prefer Strand to have its office in Mount Row off Bond Street: ‘The West End is much better than the City.’
Back to News