Quest launches Covid fallout unit
Quest Corporate, the Edinburgh-based corpo - rate finance house founded in 2000, has launched a debt advisory unit as businesses face financial hardship amid the pandemic response.
The new unit will be headed up by Kevin Boyd, who has joined Quest from Shawbrook Bank where he was managing director for Scotland until earlier this year.
Before his role at Shawbrook, Boyd was adivisional managing director at banking giant Santander and previously held senior leadership roles at Clydesdale Bank and AIB Capital Markets.
Boyd said :“A fastin creasing number of businesses will need time to recover post-covid and will require help in negotiating with their banks or in finding alternative finance. Positively, there are now many more options than in the wake of the financial crash in 2008.”
He added: “Over 50 new banking licences were granted in the ten years following the financial crash and we have also seen the growth of non-bank spe - cia list lenders which is also a big positive, but at the same time this can make navigating the funding landscape significantly more challenging.”
Stephen Paterson, director at Quest, said: “Covid continues to negatively impact businesses in the UK. We’ re only going to see more pain in 2021 and because the firm has started to pick up a series of debt advisory engagements we realised that having someone of Kevin’s experience and abilities to launch a new department at Quest was the way to go.”
Quest’s leadership team also includes founding director Scott Carnegie.