Specialist business advisory firm FRP is to establish its first Welsh office after acquiring Cardiff-based Lexington Corporate Finance.
Founded in 2015, Lexington provides corporate finance services to clients both locally and nationwide and will go to market as FRP Corporate Finance. Lexington’s founder, Gary Partridge, will join FRP as partner with all 14 other members of the Lexington team also joining to establish the firm’s 28th UK office.
The £3m acquisition is FRP’s 10th since becoming a plc in 2020, as it continues to develop a full-service advisory practice across the UK.
Lexington is expected to benefit from working closely with FRP Corporate Finance’s Bristol office, which recently appointed Tim Spooner as partner following a 20-year career with KPMG, to join existing partner Mark Naughton. In 2023, FRP Corporate Finance advised on more than £1.5 billion-worth of deals, raising more than £500 million in debt funding for clients.
Geoff Rowley, CEO of FRP, said: “Wales has long been a target region for FRP and this acquisition further strengthens our national corporate finance business. We are pleased to welcome Gary and the team to FRP; they share our values and I have no doubt will make a strong contribution, as we continue to grow.”
Gary Partridge, founder of Lexington and partner at FRP Corporate Finance, said: “We are delighted to be joining FRP Corporate Finance and are excited by the opportunities that being part of FRP presents for our team and our clients. We are all immensely proud of what we have achieved as a team at Lexington over the past nine years and being part of FRP will be a launch pad to enable us to offer a broader range of services to our clients. We are confident that by building upon our shared values of quality and professionalism with FRP we will accelerate our growth.”
Mark Naughton, FRP Corporate Finance partner in the South West, said: “It is fantastic to see FRP expanding into Wales. We’re expecting to see an uptick in M&A activity over the next 12 months and we are looking forward to working with Gary and his team to help clients to seize on the opportunities that lie ahead.”
