23
Jun
Financing M&A deals in a rapidly evolving market
M&A financing is rapidly adapting to a complex and uncertain backdrop. Bank financing remains open for business, but the prospect of further interest rate increases is driving greater selectivity and discipline in deal underwriting. Private credit continues to offer flexible capital but is now facing intensifying scrutiny from regulators and investors around governance, transparency and risk management. This panel will examine how the UK M&A financing market is adapting, and how capital availability and structure compare with the US and Europe.
- How are current financing conditions influencing UK M&A deal flow and the willingness of buyers and sellers to bring transactions to market?
- How is financing availability affecting deal certainty, speed and competitiveness in live UK sale processes, particularly when compared with the US and European markets?
- Which types of transactions are better suited to bank financing versus private credit and vice versa?
- How can debt packages be designed to protect lenders while maximising value creation opportunities for buyers?
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SpeakersLaura Vaughan, CFA Head of European Direct Lending Federated Hermes Limited
Chris Brass Senior Director, Head of the UK Leveraged Finance Propositions & Distribution team HSBC
Dan Matthews Head of EMEA Leveraged Finance SMBC
Gareth Jones Managing Director, Head of Large Corporate Lending Barclays Bank PLC
Stuart Hawkins Head of Private Credit UK & Managing Director Ardian
Suzana Perić Managing Director and Co-Head of Sourcing & Origination Oaktree Capital Management
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Laura joined Federated Hermes in November 2015 when the private credit platform was being established. Laura is the portfolio manager of the third vintage of Federated Hermes’ European Direct Lending franchise, as well as Junior Portfolio Manager of the second vintage. Laura is also responsible for managing the team of direct lending analysts. Laura sits on the Private Debt Investment Committee which considers investments across all direct lending strategies at Federated Hermes Limited. Laura joined from GE Capital, where she was an associate in its mid-market leveraged finance execution team. At GE, Laura focused on arranging financings for European private equity-backed acquisitions funded through senior, second lien, mezzanine and unitranche facilities. Prior to this, Laura worked for three years at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in its acquisition finance team in London, focusing on opportunities in European large-cap leveraged finance transactions and on portfolio management. Her previous role was at Allied Irish Bank in Dublin in its Corporate Banking North America division, in which she analysed US large-cap and middle-market leveraged finance transactions, and performed portfolio management functions. She has an Economics degree from University College Dublin, is a CFA charterholder and holds the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Chris Brass is a Senior Director and Head of the HSBC UK Leveraged Finance Propositions & Distribution team. He joined HSBC in 2003 and has 20 years’ experience of working within the UK Leveraged Finance Market, across a variety of roles including Origination, Sponsor Coverage and Distribution/Syndication. The HSBC UK Leveraged Finance team is focussed on providing Debt products on Financial Sponsor backed transactions. The team is the market leading bank in the UK Mid-Market and was voted Lender of the year for the fourth year in a row at the 2025 Merger Market British Private Equity Awards.
Head of Leveraged Finance, EMEA – SMBC Group
As Head of Leveraged Finance, Dan is responsible for overseeing SMBC’s leveraged finance and private credit strategies across Europe. The business comprises over 100 investment professionals across four European offices, with $10bn AUM.
Prior to joining SMBC Group in 2015, Dan was a Managing Director in GE Capital’s European leveraged finance business and has 25 years of experience lending to private equity owned companies.
Gareth runs the Large Corporate Lending team at Barclays, a 70-person team responsible for originating, structuring and executing loan transactions for clients of Barclays’ UK Corporate Banking division. Working with Owner Managed business, as well as listed and Sponsor Backed companies, the LCL team provides debt capital for all purposes including general corporate needs, M&A, expansionary CapEx and LBOs.
Stuart has over 20 years of experience in the European leverage buyout market. He began his career working in the leveraged finance team at UBS, and then spent 9 years in the European mezzanine and private debt group at Barings investing in European middle market credit. Prior to joining Ardian he worked at TSSP, TPG's credit platform, as a Director helping develop its European private debt business. He is based in the London office.
Education: University of Warwick
Suzana Perić is a managing director and Co-Head of Oaktree’s Sourcing & Origination group, where she focuses on private credit sourcing and deal origination across Europe. She joined Oaktree in 2023 from Bridgepoint Credit (formerly EQT Credit), where she was managing director and Head of Origination for the firm’s opportunities fund. In that role, she established and led the fund’s pan-European origination platform. Prior to that, Ms. Perić led Santander’s EMEA Loan Sales team, overseeing transactions across project finance, real estate, leveraged finance, corporate lending, and infrastructure. Earlier in her career, she held roles at HSH Nordbank, Natixis, and Hamburg Hafencity. Ms. Perić holds an M.A. degree in philology from the University of Hamburg and a degree from ESCP Europe Business School (London/Madrid). She is a native speaker of German and Croatian and is business fluent in Spanish.