EMC in line for top awards

EMC Corporate Finance is in line to pick up two prestigious prizes in the inaugural Gatwick Deals Awards organised by The Business magazine.

The company has been shortlisted in the category for the Corporate Finance Team of the Year and one of its directors, Desmond High, is one of three people vying for the title of Dealmaker of the Year.

The awards will be announced at a dinner at the Hilton London Gatwick Hotel on 17 September.

Guests at the black-tie event, compered by TV personality and comedian Paul Ross, will decide the outcome of both the Dealmaker of the Year and Deal of the Year awards on the night via an electronic voting mechanism.

Six other category winners, including the Corporate Finance Team of the Year, are being judged in advance and will be announced at the dinner.

Nik Askaroff, EMC’s Eastbourne-based chief executive, said he was delighted that the firm had been nominated as one of the top corporate finance teams.

“We’ve had a fantastic 12 months, with many large and complex sales coming to fruition,” he said. “It is particularly satisfying that several of the clients whose businesses we have sold over the past year took the trouble to nominate us for this award. That says a lot for the relationship we have built up with them.”

Desmond High, who was one of the first people in the region to be awarded the prestigious Corporate Finance Diploma by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, remarked: “I have been fortunate to be involved in some interesting, high-profile deals in the past year which, I guess, have led to my nomination in the Dealmaker category.

“I’m delighted to have reached this stage, if only because it proves that the boutiques can be up there with the bigger firms. We are very hands-on in everything we do. When EMC is appointed to handle a sale, the senior personnel are involved from beginning to end.”