Stuart Dyer

Biography

Stuart Dyer

Chairman & Co-Founder | M&A adviser

M&A and advisory experience

Stuart Dyer is Chairman and Co-Founder of Dyer Baade & Company and has more than 40 years of experience across Financial Services as a CEO, chairman, senior executive and M&A adviser.

He advises founders, shareholders, CEOs, boards and investors on complex transactions and strategic decisions, with particular expertise in Wealth & Asset Management, Financial Planning, Fiduciary Services and Private Equity-backed M&A.

At Dyer Baade, Stuart leads selected senior client relationships and is particularly involved in transaction strategy, complex negotiations and larger mandates. His experience is especially valuable where a transaction involves sophisticated institutional buyers, financial sponsors or strategic considerations extending beyond headline valuation.

Selected mandates include leading Dyer Baade’s advice to Oaktree Capital Management on its £140 million acquisition of Sanlam Wealth, advising Apiary Capital on its investment in Radiant Financial Group, and acting as lead adviser to the partners of PMN Financial Management on their sale to Close Brothers Asset Management. Stuart also worked alongside Ascot Lloyd across a multi-year acquisition programme comprising approximately 20 acquisitions and more than £4 billion of acquired assets under advice.

Strategic perspective and operating experience

Stuart brings an unusual perspective to M&A. Before becoming an adviser, he spent much of his career running, acquiring and developing Financial Services businesses himself. As a result, he understands transactions not only from the perspective of the adviser, but also from that of the CEO, board, buyer and shareholder making the decision.

That operating experience informs a highly practical approach to strategy and execution. Stuart focuses on the issues that ultimately determine whether a transaction creates value - strategic fit, management, integration, negotiation, execution risk and the long-term implications of ownership decisions.

For many clients, his role extends beyond running a process. He acts as a senior adviser on questions where there is no obvious answer: whether to proceed, when to push back, how to assess competing offers and whether a transaction still serves the original strategic objective.

Wealth Management, Financial Services and institutional capital

Stuart has deep experience across Wealth Management and the broader Financial Services sector, including both organic growth and acquisition-led strategies.

Before founding Dyer Baade, he was Chairman of Ascot Lloyd, where he oversaw the merger of Bellpenny and Ascot Lloyd and the development of one of the UK’s larger independent financial advice businesses.

Previously, he spent seven years at Close Brothers, where his roles included Head of Intermediary Acquisitions, Head of UK Distribution and Executive Chairman of Fiduciary Services. Earlier in his career, Stuart served as Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of Cofunds, helping to build what became one of the UK’s leading investment platforms.

This combination of operating, board-level, buy-side and advisory experience gives Stuart a detailed understanding of how sophisticated buyers and investors assess businesses, where they identify risk and what can materially influence transaction value and certainty.

Career background

Stuart’s earlier career included senior roles at Robert Fleming, Friends Provident, Schroders and Baring Asset Management.

Today, he combines that operating and board-level experience with Dyer Baade’s specialist M&A capabilities to advise business owners, boards and investors on transactions where judgement, negotiation and an understanding of how sophisticated counterparties think can materially influence the outcome.