Chris Backhouse BA, FCA, Associate Director – chris.backhouse@fdsolutions.uk.com

Chris qualified as an ACA in 1981 with KPMG and spent ten years in the accountancy profession, latterly with Ernst & Young, providing financial and business advice to fast-growing entrepreneurial clients from a variety of industries and ranging in size from start-ups to subsidiaries of large overseas operations.

Chris left the profession in 1991 to become FD of a listed aerospace and defence products group, serving clients such as Boeing and BAe, where he helped with the development of its strategic plan and profit improvement initiatives, before its successful privatisation in 1997.

He then joined the UK subsidiary of a Swiss healthcare company, restructuring the operation and turning it around from annual losses of over £2m, before its sale to a competitor, moving on to join the MBO team that had acquired a former FMCG packaging division of Courtaulds. Operating in eight countries worldwide, Chris had responsibility for the start-up and funding of businesses in countries including China, Poland, Russia, India, Brazil and the USA.

Chris joined FD Solutions after a period working as an independent financial adviser, during which time he was involved in the successful VC-backed £12m MBO of a UK-based industrial services business, acting as FD and assisting with the business planning, finance raising and implementation of post-acquisition plans.

Chris has particular knowledge of the aerospace, healthcare, FMCG, packaging and industrial services sectors as well as extensive experience of corporate finance matters, including smaller business acquisitions and disposals, strategic and business planning and venture capital-backed transactions, as well as experience of doing business in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Americas. Rather than concentrate on a particular sector, Chris focuses his expertise on business planning & development, corporate finance and M&A activity for entrepreneurial businesses ranging in size from start-up to around £100m turnover.

Since joining FD Solutions, assignments on which Chris has worked include:

1. Assisting a media entertainments services business with financial reporting to its new German public-company parent and led the preparation of their budget and three year forecast.
2. Acting as interim FD in the VC-backed £25m MBO of a UK-based building products design and international distribution business.
3. Developing a business plan for a City financial services business, preparing financial projections and contributing to the evolution of management’s strategy and expansion plans.