Dow Schofield Watts (DSW) has revealed a fifth member of its newly established Midlands corporate finance team with the appointment of Shaf Bheda as a Partner. He was previously Head of Magma Corporate Finance, was part of the founding team but has only just joined due to contractual commitments.

Shaf has spent the last six years with Magma Corporate Finance in the East and West Midlands, spearheading it from a standing start. With more than ten years' experience in corporate finance, originally with RSM UK, he specialises in providing bespoke solutions to SMEs particularly in the circular economy & recycling, infrastructure and software sectors.

Key recent deals of note for Shaf include advising the shareholders of Envirokey on its sale to circular economy specialist Reconomy; the sale of Integrum Power Engineering to Triton Partners backed OCU Group and the buy-out of leading vehicle servicing equipment supplier, Pro-Align.

DSW's Midlands corporate finance team was launched in September 2023 by Harry Walker, Fahim Kassam and Daniel Chouciño who joined DSW from FRP Corporate Finance. It has made no secret of its plans to expand quickly and is based in Leicester and Nottingham whilst in November the team were joined by Lucy Fairclough as an Associate Director.

Shaf was hoping to be onboard with Harry, Fahim and Daniel as part of the launch of DSW Corporate Finance in the Midlands.

"Timing didn't align for me to join back in September but as one of the founding Partners I'm thrilled to now be in place at the start of 2024. We're a fresh, entrepreneurial corporate finance team who know the region and our chosen sectors inside out. DSW has a highly regarded and recognised corporate finance brand and offering. Being a part of this together with its excellent infrastructure is enabling us to hit the ground running with a dedicated Partner-led M&A team delivering to Midlands-based SMEs."

Harry Walker added:

"When I started to put together a brand new corporate finance team for the Midlands, Shaf was one of the very first people I thought of. An established leader in our sector, he is highly regarded across the region and the alignment of our values and approach to business is exceptional. Everyone in the DSW Corporate Finance team in the Midlands have at least a decade's experience advising owner managed and private equity backed businesses, so Shaf adds even more experience to the mix. We're excited to be working together and are looking forward to continuing to grow the team and our offering in the very near future."

Dow Schofield Watts now has over 100 professionals in Aberdeen, Cardiff, the North West, Leeds, Leicester, London, Nottingham and Reading. It regularly ranks amongst the top 20 most active UK corporate finance advisers and also operates Pandea Global M&A, an international corporate finance network covering 33 different countries.