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James Wanless Joins Houlihan Lokey's Business Services Group

Houlihan Lokey are pleased to announce that James Wanless has joined their Business Services Group as a Director, based in London. James will focus on the Built Environment and Facilities Services sectors at Houlihan Lokey.

James joins the company from DC Advisory, where he was a Director in the Business & Tech‑Enabled Services team, with a focus on the professional services and built environment sectors.

Recent transactions that James has worked on include Rockpool’s sale of Mecsia to Synova; YFM’s sale of RGE Services to Equistone; Equistone’s sale of Acuity to Permira and OMERS’ acquisition of Bionic.

Prior to joining DC Advisory in 2021, he spent over eight years with Deloitte where, having qualified as a chartered accountant, he was a member of the M&A advisory team.

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He joins a 40‑strong Business Services team in Europe, headed by Managing Directors Simon Gluckstein, James Local, Oliver Vaughan, Axel Bauer and Kristoffer Kalleskog. The global Business Services Group, led by Ranon Kent, now has some 180 bankers covering 13 sectors and over 130 subsectors.

In 2023, according to LSEG (formerly Refinitiv), Houlihan Lokey’s Business Services Group was ranked once again as the No. 1 investment bank for all global business services M&A transactions, having successfully completed some 63 assignments for our clients during the year.