Who We Are: Simon Walters

Simon qualified in 1986 and joined the corporate finance department of Stoy Hayward, where he rose to become Manager.

In 1990 he left to join Fuller Peiser, a national property consultancy, as Finance Partner at the age of 27.

In 1992 he became FD of the privately-held Molyneux property investment and venture capital group, whose interests included 52% of USM-quoted Molyneux Estates plc.

In 1997 he took a similar role at Shani, a fully-listed UK clothing manufacturer with head office in Watford and factories in Yorkshire and eastern Europe.

In 1999 he was invited by Andrew Cohen, CEO of Betterware prior to its high-profile £127m sale, to run Wood Hall Securities, his private equity group. Simon managed funds of £25m invested in a range of private high-growth businesses and a significant property portfolio, and then used the profits to reacquire Betterware for Cohen.

Simon also sat as a Non-Executive Director on the board of Bilston & Battersea Enamels plc, in which Wood Hall held a 29.99% stake, was finance director of the Fish! chain of restaurants after Wood Hall bought it out of receivership, and was a director of NetFM, an internet radio station for which he headed a consortium of backers.

Simon’s expertise is focussed on property, leisure, healthcare, environmental businesses and investment companies.

At FD Solutions he has:

• Helped one member of a family business to negotiate a de-merger.
• Assisted the turnaround of a waste management business that resulted in it trading profitably and reducing its borrowings.
• Helped a new magazine to become established by careful cost control and accessing the government’s Small Firm’s Loan Guarantee Scheme.
• Been FD for a gaming company which joined AIM in February 2007;
• Been non-executive chairman, for several years, of a company operating nursing homes for the elderly and residential homes for children with eating disorders in 13 locations within the south-east;
• Undertaken the FD role for a fuel cell development company which floated on AIM in April 2007;
• Advised a property development company which was looking to expand its banking contacts.