Simon Blake

Simon is a Partner who founded the current Strategic Corporate Finance Team at Price Bailey, as well as a member of the firm’s Executive Board, where he leads our own acquisition strategy. He works across the firm’s offices and plays a central role in shaping the direction of the Strategic Corporate Finance Team, supporting clients and colleagues on complex, high-value transactions and strategic decisions.  He is also an active Board member on several companies and charities.

Simon advises owner-managed businesses from a corporate finance and M&A perspective, working closely with boards, entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses as they navigate growth, change and transition. He is often brought in as a lead adviser on complex decisions and transactions, helping clients think strategically, coordinate the right support and move forward with confidence.

How I help clients

• Advising owner-managed and family businesses on growth, succession, generational transition and exit planning.
• Leading mergers, acquisitions and disposals, from strategy and negotiation through to completion.
• Assessing funding requirements and helping clients secure finance for growth, acquisitions and refinancing.
• Providing business valuations, due diligence and expert support for transactions, tax matters and disputes.
• Actively assisting clients with their philanthropic objectives, assessing the impact they can achieve through their resources and advising on how to structure charitable giving from business wealth

Career Highlights

2009 – After having trained with Price Bailey, Simon returned as Partner and built the current Strategic Corporate Finance Team.

2022 – Elected onto the firm’s Management Board

2024 – Opened the Oxford office.

External roles

Simon is active in Price Bailey’s international business development work, travelling extensively across Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. He is also a regular speaker and contributor at IAPA and other conferences on corporate finance and valuation matters.

He is also:

• A Director of Lamb’s Passage Holding Limited and Board observer for Kingdom Bank
• An adviser in the not-for-profit sector, particularly in social finance and impact investment
• Former Chair of Home for Good and co-Chair of Trustees at Safe Families, where he led the merger with Home For Good in 2024
• Former Chair of Trustees of Stewardship and adviser to several charities in the UK and overseas
• Independent director (past and present) of several EOT Trustee companies

Q&A

What’s the best part of the work you do?

Enabling clients to realise their ambitions, through the success of their businesses, whether buying or selling.  I am privileged to be working on the projects that are most important to the client at that moment in time.

Most rewarding client moment?

Most recently, seeing a family complete the sale of their business at twice the value we thought was possible at the beginning of a sale process less than two years earlier, and all for cash!

How should owners think about succession if a sale isn’t the right answer?

Succession is firstly about people and then about value and money. Incentivising key management with equity is a great way to align their interests, either to prompt management to think about being an owner, and/or to align them with a future sale. Employee Ownership is also a very real option and we have seen many company owners be very excited about passing their business to their employees, even if they get a lower valuation and it takes some years to be paid (from future profits).

 What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Outside of work, I’m married with two adopted sons and a daughter-in-law, and I’m an active Christian attending Christchurch Cambridge. I enjoy walking along the beaches and coastline of the UK, particularly in Cornwall and Scotland, exploring more remote parts of the country in my campervan, and skiing in the Alps with friends and family.