Castle is delighted to announce that Managing Director, Stuart Stepney, has been named Dealmaker of the Year at the prestigious Insider South East Dealmakers Awards 2023, following in the footsteps of director Victoria Ansell’s win at last year’s awards.

The highly regarded event, now in its seventeenth year, honours the region’s M&A professionals.

Stuart comments: “It is a real honour to be a winner of this amazing accolade and made even better to be celebrating it on the night with the team. My focus has always been on delivering excellent service and to work closely with exceptional clients as they go through life changing corporate events. My heartfelt thanks go to my team for all their hard work and dedication, as well as to our loyal network of fellow professionals and past clients that have supported us throughout Castle’s 15 year journey to date.”

Victoria adds: “I and the whole Castle team were thrilled to see Stuart win this last night! It is so well deserved, and great recognition of his hard work and dedication over so many years, to Castle, to clients, and to the corporate finance community we are a part of.”

In addition to Stuart’s success, one of Castle’s deals, the sale of Take 1 to fast-growing Israeli tech group, Verbit, was also triumphant on the night, winning Deal of the Year (sub £10m). Take 1 specialises in start-to-finish transcription and captioning services for video content. The judges noted that the complex deal has increased Take 1’s presence in the region, and also increases the number of people employed.

A fantastic and memorable night for Stuart and Castle. As well as the two award wins, the company was shortlisted in five other categories, including individual shortlists for Victoria Ansell and Alex Nursey.