Winners of the Scotland Dealmakers awards 2026 revealed

The best of the nation's dealmaking community have been celebrated at the Insider Scotland Dealmakers Awards in association with The Scotsman. This year’s awards, which had a record 110 entries and 600 guests, was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central and compered by Colin Murray. The headline sponsor was Nationwide, with category sponsors HSBC UK, James Hambro & Partners, Lockton Companies LLP, Norman Broadbent, PiB Insurance Brokers, Scottish Enterprise and The Scottish National Investment Bank. Quantify Advisors, Addleshaw Goddard and Quilter Cheviot sponsored the networking booklet, drinks reception and table plan respectively. The chosen charity partner was Capability Scotland. 

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Corporate Law Firm of the Year

Sponsored by Nationwide

Winner: CMS

CMS completed more than 80 deals and grew revenue by double digits, leading landmark transactions from Scotland, including the largest deal in North Sea history which saw HitecVision and Neo Next buying TotalEnergies’ UK oilfield business. Other deal highlights include the Walker Precision sale, Foresight’s Welding Engineers deal and the sale of Braehead Shopping Centre to Frasers Group.

Shortlisted:

Addleshaw Goddard

Burness Paull LLP

Dentons

Macdonald Henderson Limited

Pinsent Masons LLP

Transaction Services Team of the Year

Sponsored by Lockton Companies LLP

Winner: PwC

PwC brought deep sector expertise to more than 20 deals with real scale and complexity including the £2.7bn Evelyn sale, the $8.65bn Kraken spin-out and North Star’s £275m refinancing. The firm has a team of more than 30 across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, leading major UK deals from Scotland.

Shortlisted:

AAB

EY

KPMG

Quantify Advisors

RSM UK

Private Equity / Venture Capital Deal of the Year

Sponsored by HSBC UK

Winner: Sale of Walker Precision Engineering to Karman Space & Defense (Advisers: BGF, Kroll, CMS, KPMG, Browne Jacobson, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Cynergy Bank, Trive Capital)

Walker went from an operating loss of almost £4m to a £6m earnings run-rate in about 18 months, a turnaround the judges called transformational for a precision machining business, before an impressive £70m cross border sale to a NYSE listed defence group. BGF backed the company through its toughest years when many investors would have given up and Glasgow is now the base for its new owner’s move into Europe.

Shortlisted:

Chiltern Capital investment into Xburo UK Ltd (Advisers: Azets, Gillespie Macandrew, Chiltern Capital)

Graham + Sibbald investment from Foresight Group (Advisers: EY, Burness Paull, Robertson Craig, AAB, Addleshaw Goddard, Dow Schofield Watts, PMSI Strategy, Catalysis Advisory, Vista Insurance, Abstract Group, Barclays)

LDC's investment in Nu-Style Products (Advisers: RSM, Burness Paull, AAB, Virgin Money)

Private equity investment by Activequity into Alliance Wine (Advisers: Azets, MFMac, Simmons & Simmons) 

Corporate Finance Advisory Team of the Year

Sponsored by James Hambro & Partners

Winner: Johnston Carmichael LLP

This team of 24 completed thirty-two deals worth more than £320m. It led the competitive international sale of Zonal to Volaris, securing a clean exit for three generations of the McLean family.

Shortlisted:

AAB

Azets

EY Corporate Finance

HNH Partners

Bank/Funder of the Year

Sponsored by PiB Insurance Brokers

Winner: Virgin Money

Virgin Money put more than £590m to work in Scotland, across a range of private equity deals, venture debt and new customers. It backed businesses from fast-growing scale-ups to established names, and committed £25m to the Invest in Women Taskforce to help female founders access funding.

Shortlisted:

Barclays Bank Plc

OakNorth

Royal Bank of Scotland

Alternative Funder of the Year 

Winner: PXN Ventures

The merger of Par Equity and Praetura created PXN, now managing £760m and backing more than 120 companies. Six exits worth £410m, and new investments in quantum hardware, tidal energy and climate tech across Scotland.

Shortlisted:

Archangel Investors

Kelvin Capital

Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC)

Emerging Dealmaker of the Year

Winner: Harry Staples, Foresight Group

Harry led a complex succession deal at Welding Engineers giving a long-established family business a succession plan, and allowing four founder-managers to hand over to a new leadership team He also completed the investment in McLaggan + Co alongside its acquisition of Customworks and the follow-on deal at Envair Technology. His work doesn’t stop at completion. He stays at the table, strengthening boards and helping businesses grow.

Shortlisted:

Anthony Kelly, Scottish National Investment Bank

Conor Adamson, Henderson Loggie

George Wait, EY Corporate Finance

Sarah Dick, Addleshaw Goddard

Sean Parr, HNH Partners

International/National Deal of the Year

Sponsored by The Scottish National Investment Bank

Winner: Sale of Cyberhawk to Ondas Inc. (Advisers: Lincoln International, Magnesium Capital, Reed Smith, Grant Thornton UK, BCG, Crosslake)

Founded in Edinburgh in 2008, Cyberhawk now works in 40 countries and was sold to a US-listed buyer for $125m. The deal shows private capital taking a Scottish business from seed money to a global exit. SSE Ventures, Scottish Equity Partners and Scottish Enterprise then Magnesium Capital supported the business to grow revenues more than 5 fold and take headcount in Edinburgh from 50 to 250.

Shortlisted:

HAVN Capital's Investment in Spares in Motion BV (Advisers: IMAP Netherlands, Wikborg Rein, Stek, PJCZ, Cuatrecasas, Quantify Advisors)

Odfjell Technology acquisition of Kaseum Holdings Limited and RAZOR Oiltools Limited (Advisers: Pinsent Masons LLP, Burness Paull, Addleshaw Goddard, Piper Sandler, SB1 Markets)

Public listing of BLK Global (Advisers: Pinsent Masons LLP, Burness Paull, Addleshaw Goddard, Piper Sandler, SB1 Markets)

Sale of Scientific Beta for Singapore Exchange (Advisers: CT Corporate Finance, Pinsent Masons, Brodies)

Weir Group PLC acquisition of Fast2Mine (Advisers: Demarest Advogados) 

Deal of the Year (Sub £10m)

Sponsored by Scottish Enterprise

Winner: £8.4m Investment in Bioliberty (Advisers: MBM Commercial, CMS, AAB, Confidas, Candour, Ritchie McBride, Archangels, Eos, Old College Capital, Hanna Capital SEZC, Conduit Connect, Whiterock, Ballad Ventures, TGH Ventures)

Bioliberty’s £8.4m round brought in its first US investors, backing its push into the US. Two of its four founders moved to Boston to lead there, while design and manufacturing stayed in Edinburgh and Fife.

Shortlisted:

Connekt EV Charging growth fund-raise (Advisers: HNH Partners, Burness Paull, Squire Patton Boggs)

Exergy3 Limited Investment (Advisers: MBM Commercial, Burness Paull, Burges Salmon, CMS)

Go Swag £3.7m Series A growth equity investment (Advisers: Harper Macleod, Lewis Silkin, Tughans, Philip Hare & Associates)

PXN Ventures' co-led seed investment into Quantcore (Advisers: PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, Blackfinch Ventures, STAC, Quantum Exponential, Addleshaw Goddard, Burness Paull, Confidas)

Sofant Technologies £6.25m funding round (Advisers: MBM Commercial, Harty and Smith, Kelvin Capital, EMV Capital Partners, Scottish Enterprise, National Security Strategic Investment Fund)

Deal of the Year (£10m - £50m)

Winner: BGF exits and reinvests alongside Growth Capital Partners in Optima Partners (Advisers: Growth Capital Partners, Clearwater, Addleshaw Goddard, BDO, Fairgrove, PwC Corporate Finance, Burness Paull, CMS, Dickson Minto, Garwood, RSM, Vista, EY-Parthenon, Confidas, Bridewell, Deloitte)

BGF made four times its money with an IRR above 50 per cent, then reinvested £4m to stay on for the next stage. The Edinburgh AI firm has more than doubled its revenues and nearly doubled its team.

Shortlisted:

Foresight and Maven’s exit of FIS Chemicals (Advisers: Piper Sandler, Blackwood Partners)

Mironid $46m Series B Financing (Advisers: Bristows, DWF, The Scottish National Investment Bank, Roche Venture Fund, Epidarex Capital, Sofinnova Partners, BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), University of Strathclyde)

Sale of Tube Developments Limited to Buhlmann Group (Advisers: EY, Weightmans LLP, Cooper Parry, Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP, KPMG)

Sale of Exceed (XCD) Holdings Limited to Kent (Advisers: Cooper Parry (formerly Hutcheon Mearns), Burness Paull, Johnston Carmichael, Deloitte, Square One Law)

Deal of the Year (£50m+)

Sponsored by Norman Broadbent

Winner: NatWest acquisition of Evelyn Partners (Advisers: Ardea Partners, BofA Securities, UBS, Slaughter and May, Evercore, Goldman Sachs, Linklaters, Macfarlanes, PwC).

A £2.7bn deal brought Evelyn Partners, a wealth manager with Glasgow roots, into the NatWest Group. The deal created the UK’s leading private banking and wealth business, overseeing £127bn of client assets.

Shortlisted:

Acquisition of stakes in Pentland Offshore Wind Farm (Advisers: Pinsent Masons LLP, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe)

Freudenberg Flow Technologies acquisition of Balmoral Comtec (Advisers: Freeths, Blackwood Partners, Piper Sandler, EY)

Sale of Zonal to Volaris Group (Advisers: Johnston Carmichael, DWF, Fox Williams, BDO, DUAL)

TBR Global Chauffeuring sale to San Francisco-based Lyft Inc. (Advisers: Dentons, Clearwater, Forvis Mazars, Baker McKenzie, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto)

2026 Dealmaker of the Year

Winner: Roger Mayor, HNH Partners

Roger completed six impressive deals in the year covering all angles of dealmaking including a cross border sale, a private equity investment, a distressed acquisition and growth capital, for an EV charging firm. He has spent two decades in advisory, banking and private equity which gives Roger a breadth of experience few in Scotland can match.

Shortlisted:

Campbell Cummings, Johnston Carmichael LLP

Daniel Halliday, Foresight Group

Gordon Burns, Azets

Richard Pugh, BGF

Outstanding contribution

Winner: Nick Dalgarno, Piper Sandler

For more than two decades, our winner has been the leading adviser in energy services M&A. He has worked on deals across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, an international reach few Scottish advisers can match.He has championed the north-east as a driver of Scotland’s economic future and is helping shape the energy transition. As a trustee of Sportschallenge, he has helped raise more than £1m for Scottish charities.