Alcaraz sets up company to source corporate deals in support services

Top City banker Peter Alcaraz has set up a company to find corporate deals in the support services sector worth up to £200m.

The firm, Firsa, was registered last week, and Mr Alcaraz will work with social-housing experts Derek Joseph, Julian Ashby and Jeffrey Zitron.

Mr Alcaraz left Close Brothers Corporate Finance (CBCF) last month, where he was head of the support-services team, and will join rival Gleacher Shacklock as a special adviser. At Firsa he will be originating deals rather than acting as an adviser. "Our task is to find interesting companies that are looking to find equity or merge and take them to potential buyers," he said.

Mr Alcaraz is said to have left CBCF on good terms, but the firm has lost a number of big hitters this year. Gareth Davies, the managing director of the restructuring team, left for Greenhill last month. Matthew Prest, François Vidal, Daniel Gibney and Sean Scoggins all moved from CBCF to the European arm of US investment bank Moelis.