The 6^th of August marked 30 years since the founding of InterFinancial, Clairfield’s exclusive partner in Australia. A reception was held at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art to celebrate the occasion with partners, clients, and friends sharing thoughts on the past 30 years and aspirations for the future.

Paul Keehan, chairman of InterFinancial, addressed the partygoers on entering mid-life, a period for enterprise and a time to reflect upon the last 30 years and forge ahead with a new understanding of who we are, what we stand for, where we have come from and how we act. Paul has been with InterFinancial for 20 years and has been in the industry for over 30 years. On this momentous occasion he announced his transition to a non-executive role with the firm. Paul has been a truly inspiring, ethical leader and has firmly left his stamp on InterFinancial’s core values.

Sharon Doyle, managing director, reminded everyone that InterFinancial was ranked as #6 in the whole of Australia and New Zealand for M&A transactions up to $50m in CY2016 (and #14 up to $500m),  ranking above far larger competitors. Sharon then looked to the future and explored InterFinancial’s commitment to continuous reinvention, shaping and re-shaping its offering to deliver clients what they actually need for shareholder value growth. Sharon highlighted some examples of recent initiatives by InterFinancial:

• Development of an online valuation product that accesses real-time market data, applies algorithms based on hundreds of hours of referenceable valuation theory research combined with 30 years of wisdom and experience; and delivers a high-quality, indicative valuation,  and provides advice to the client on how they can improve that valuation.  This software program will put the power in the hands of clients so that they can make well informed, higher-impact investment decisions within their business.

• Launching a growth-consulting business for clients who, although they often have incredibly capable senior management teams, are built to run lean and have limited spare capacity to define and implement new strategic growth initiatives. In response, InterFinancial has established a growth-consulting division with specialist skills and flexible capacity that will assist clients in defining and executing value-building initiatives. A team of experienced consultants will engage on specific, targeted projects including growth strategy development & project management, buyside advisory services including investment case development, integration planning and synergy identification; and post-merger integration services (including a focus on synergy realization). This is a natural and exciting extension of InterFinancial’s core M&A and capital raising advisory work that will help clients to achieve more in their business.
• Establishing a permanent Sydney office with the recruitment of Chris Mundey, who has strong private equity and consulting experience.

Clairfield International has proved an amazingly effective partnership for InterFinancial clients, with over 70% of InterFinancial’s transactions over the last two years involving international targets. Sharon and her team secure incredible access through more than 20 partner firms and are currently active with strategic parties out of the US, Benelux, and China.  This relationship has continued to strengthen and Australian partners plan to engage ever more actively with international partners from Clairfield in the future.

“We would like to thank every friend of InterFinancial that has joined us on our journey – of course our clients who have trusted us with such significant events in their own journey – but also all of the other people in our market and our team members who have helped us to find these opportunities, create solutions, and then deliver fantastic outcomes for our clients,” says Sharon Doyle. “Finally, we celebrated the fact that as we looked around the room, we saw not “business contacts and clients” but a fantastic group of friends that we have made throughout our journey. We genuinely enjoy working with our clients, providing clear, direct, informed and fearless advice for our clients and associates and ensuring that we continue to make an impact in every engagement; and we plan to keep doing this for many years to come.”