Nic Hellyer

Partner

Nic joined Opus in 2017 with over 25 years of investment banking experience including senior roles at UBS, HSBC and N+1 Singer, where he was Head of M&A. He has led advisory teams on a full range of transactions, including public takeovers, private M&A (buy and sell side), IPOs and other equity fund raisings in both the public and private markets, with a particular focus on the small and mid cap sectors.

Nic has particular expertise in the public market, having been both a Suitably Experienced Employee under the UK Listing Authority sponsor regime (Main Market) and a Qualified Executive for Nominated Adviser purposes under the AIM Rules. He also undertook a two year secondment to the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers.

Notable transactions Nic has advised on include the IPOs of easyJet, Detica, Rockhopper Exploration and Hirco (the largest IPO on AIM in 2006), and numerous public takeovers, including a number of high profile hostile bids. Recently he has advised on the sale by public offer of Source Bioscience to Sherwood Holdings, and the acquisition of Brand Architekts Limited by Swallowfield plc.

Malcolm Le May

Partner

Malcolm has over 35 years' experience in the financial services industry. He was previously Co-Head of Barclays' banking business in North America, Head of UBS' investment banking business in Europe and Global Head of ING's corporate and investment banking business. Subsequently he was Deputy CEO of Morley Fund Managers (now Aviva Investors) and European President of JER, a pan-European property asset manager.

Malcolm was previously a Non-Executive Director of RSA plc and Senior Independent Director of Pendragon plc. He currently holds Non-Executive roles at Provident Financial plc, Hastings plc, IG Group plc and Juno Capital LLP, a specialist angel investor. He is also a senior advisor to EY, the global professional services group.

Malcolm has a degree in Accounting and Business Psychology from Bangor University and is a member of the ICAEW.

John McElroy

Partner

John co-leads Opus’s sustainability practice with a particular focus on renewable energy, renewable chemicals, sustainable transport and resource efficiency.  He is also involved with Opus’s public company business and private special situations practice. Recent experience includes the balance sheet restructurings of a biomass and a renewable chemicals business, capital raisings to construct three biomass-CHP power stations, fund raisings for two wood conversion technology businesses, and acquisitions of two anaerobic digestion plants.

John commenced his corporate finance career at S.G. Warburg (later UBS Investment Bank) in London after qualifying as a chartered accountant at KPMG.  John has advised on a wide range public and private M&A and capital markets transactions in Europe and the US and spent eight years in New York with UBS Investment Bank.  He returned to the UK in 2003 and set up the corporate finance advisory business of UBS Wealth Management in London before moving to Opus in 2008.

He has a BSc (Econ) degree from University College London and is a member of the ICAEW.

Nigel McNelly

Partner

Nigel has been a partner at Opus since its inception in 2006. Nigel has clients across a broad range of sectors and specialises in advice to family and trust owned businesses. Areas of particular sector focus include events and event services, specialist property (including affordable housing and related services) and B2B consulting and business services.

Recent assignments have included advice to a large family owned brewer on succession issues and the trustees of a multi-generational  family trust in the property sector in relation to trust diversification requirements.

In addition, Nigel led the Opus team advising on the sale of the events services business Peppermint Bars to Conviviality. Other recent transactions include the investment by Related Companies in Pocket Living and Hearst Publishing in Mediablaze.

Nigel joined SG Warburg in 1983 and in 1997 was recruited as Head of Corporate Finance at Enskilda Securities in London. Nigel has a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and is a member of ICAEW.

Richard Morse

Partner

Richard has been a partner at Opus since 2011. Richard is primarily focused on the energy and infrastructure sectors, and has a particular expertise in M&A, project finance and fund-raising for energy technology companies.  Recent assignments have included advice to a renewable energy project developer, raising funds for a new power station, and also advice to an electricity storage technology development company on successive fund-raisings.

As well as his work with Opus, Richard is on the Boards of John Laing Environmental Assets Group Limited (JLEN), Bazalgette Tunnel Limited, Woodard Corporation and The Grange Festival.

Richard joined Kleinwort Benson in 1981 whence he was seconded to be Deputy Director General of OFGEM from 1999-2001.  Following a brief stint as head of Utilities and Infrastructure for Europe at Goldman Sachs, he led the energy and infrastructure team at Greenhill & Co.  He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford (classics).  He is an honorary fellow of Ripon College, Cuddesdon.

Per Regnarsson

Partner

Per started his banking career at Danske Bank in Denmark and moved into investment banking in the 1990s at Chase Manhattan Bank, Moody’s, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch in London and New York with particular focus on the emerging energy and infrastructure finance markets, benefiting from his credit market expertise. 

Amongst major transactions, Per was an advisor to Elsam as part of the creation of DONG Energy (now Orsted) in 2004. He also advised several Spanish construction groups on their funding strategies for the transition into infrastructure and renewable energy.

Per’s client and investor networks reach across Europe, North America and Asia, while his involvement in Sustainability advisory benefits considerably from industrial and financial relationships in his “2^nd home market” of Scandinavia.

Over the past 10 years, Per founded and managed a smaller, cleantech corporate finance boutique and acted as principal and advisor on acquisitions of more than 1GW of renewable energy projects and on growth capital for clean technology companies. Per has a MSc (Sloan Fellowship) degree from London Business School.

Stuart Schofield

Partner

Stuart joined Opus in 2008 and has clients across a broad range of sectors. Areas of particular sector focus include renewable energy and sustainability, industrials and business services.

Recent transaction experience includes advising Estover Energy to fund its three biomass CHP power stations; advising Kebony on raising equity growth capital to construct its second wood conversion plant; and advising electricity storage technology company Highview on successive fund-raisings. Other recent transactions include the investments by Related in Pocket Living and Hearst Publishing in Mediablaze.

Stuart started his investment banking career at UBS in 2004, working in the UK Investment Banking team and then an M&A team within the Wealth Management business. He has a degree in Chinese from Durham University.

Mark Speller

Partner

Mark joined SG Warburg in 1988, where he gained invaluable experience of public offer, private company acquisition, disposal and fund-raising work. Prior to this he had worked with Price Waterhouse in London and Milan.

In 1991 he joined Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte's corporate finance practice and was admitted to the partnership in 1995. He founded the Financial Services sector team in 1997, which expanded significantly on the formation of PwC. Mark left that team in 2009 to take up the role of Co-head, Corporate Finance, Middle East on the back of PwC UK’s strategic alliance with its regional firm.

Mark joined Opus in 2012. He has deep experience of the Lloyd’s broking market as well as the insurance and investment funds servicing sector.

Mark has a degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Oxford University and is a member of the ICAEW.

Malcolm Strang

Partner

Malcolm joined Hill Samuel Corporate Finance in 1985 having previously qualified (ICAEW) at Price Waterhouse. After spending nine years advising on a wide range of transactions he joined Credit Suisse, where he was a Senior Director focused on cross-border and UK M&A and public company transactions.

In 2000, he became CFO of a venture development company seeking a London listing. Following the collapse of the stock market and the cancellation of the IPO, he joined KPMG Corporate Finance as a Partner where he focused on public company transactions, UK M&A and private equity transactions, before joining Oriel Securities in 2005.

Malcolm joined Matrix Investment Banking in 2010 as joint Head of Corporate Finance, with a particular focus on the business services, consumer and TMT sectors.

Malcolm joined Opus in 2011.

Craig Hassall

Associate

Craig joined Opus in 2017 as an Associate. He has worked on a number of transactions advising private equity, public, and private company clients across a range of sectors. Key sectors include private equity, real estate, and distribution.

Prior to Opus, Craig worked in the New Zealand PwC Corporate Finance team for nearly four years. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Economics) and Bachelor of Property degree from the University of Auckland, and is a CFA charterholder.

Michael Mizon

Associate

Michael joined Opus as an Associate in 2017. Since joining Opus, Michael has worked on a number of different transactions advising both private and public company clients across a range of sectors. These include power, healthcare, media and communications, property and business services.

Michael has over six years of corporate finance experience: prior to joining Opus Michael worked for Ironstone Capital in Australia advising clients on infrastructure M&A, energy and renewables project financing, and government privatisations. Michael holds a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney.

Joseph Roberts

Associate

Joe joined Opus in 2016.  He has advisory and transactional experience across a range of sectors including Financial Services, Renewables, Pharmaceuticals, Media and Construction Materials.

Prior to Opus, Joe spent four years at KPMG, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, and worked in the Deal Advisory and Forensic Accounting teams. Joe has a degree in Classics from the University of Bristol and is a member of the ICAEW.

Ashan Ranasinghe

Analyst

Ashan joined Opus in 2017. He has gained experience across the Financial Services, Consumer Business and FMCG sectors working with private company, private equity and public clients.

Prior to joining Opus, Ashan spent time at Deloitte Melbourne and at EY Colombo gaining valuable experience in M&A execution teams. Ashan has a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University (Australia) with a double major in Finance and Economics.