Corporate finance specialist McInnesCorporateFinance (MCF) has been acquired by AIM-listed business rescue and restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor Group plc.

The deal is worth up to £3.7m over five years and gives the Leeds-based boutique the resources and reach to expand its business nationally.

Begbies Traynor has acquired the firm as part of a growth strategy that sees the Manchester-based market leading restructuring specialist look to the corporate finance market for additional growth from new service lines following its AIM listing in October last year.

MCF partners Dave Irwin, Tim Edwards and Steve Roberts will continue to head the firm that employs 9 staff from its King Street offices in Leeds.

One of the North's leading corporate finance boutiques, the firm has handled some of the region's most notable deals in recent years and had nominations in the region's Dealmaker awards for the past 5 years. Last year, in recognition of its excellence, MCF won EN Magazine's Yorkshire Deal of the Year in the £10m to £50m deal category and was nominated for 'Boutique of the Year' in the prestigious European Venture Capital Association Awards.

"This deal represents an exciting opportunity for us to grow our business nationally, and we are delighted to join the Begbies Traynor Group. We are pleased that they saw our business as the ideal foundation for a national corporate finance practice within the Begbies Group, and we are looking forward to the challenges ahead," commented MCF partner Tim Edwards.

Begbies Traynor's acquisition of MCF is a key element in a strategy to double activity by 2007 through acquisitions and organic growth. It intends to offer an increasing number of closely related services beyond the formal acquisition of business insolvencies in the mid-corporate market. McInnes Corporate Finance will continue to trade under that name, and the directors and former owners become partners.

Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor Group plc said: "By joining the Group, MCF has access to our network of contacts, which will enable Begbies Traynor to broaden our offerings, and develop new reciprocal relationships with general practice accountants and corporate lenders, thus enhancing our referrer base."

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