Apologies for the ‘lockdown-selfie’ – launching a business in the midst of corona-virus made it impractical to get professional pictures taken, so please make do with this one for now. It’s a more accurate likeness than any picture of Mike in a suit!

CONTACT

Tel:  +44 (0)7553 133635
Tel: +44 (0)7730 979390
Email:  mjbarnes@tatsupartners.com

Mike Barnes

Managing Partner

Mike founded Tatsu Partners in April 2020 alongside his former colleagues to establish an independent debt advisory and restructuring business with international growth aspirations. A product-agnostic, sector generalist, Mike is widely recognised as an expert in the mid-market, sourcing debt for private equity-owned and private businesses in amounts typically between £10-300 million.

Good debt advice is not about the most debt for the lowest price, but focuses on delivering the right debt product, in the right amount, on the right terms, structured to meet the specific and unique needs of the deal and the client.

Prior to establishing Tatsu Partners, Mike spent 10 years as head of Debt Advisory at Wyvern Partners, and before that ran the Debt Advisory team at Hawkpoint for 6 years. In his early career, Mike spent 15 years in the banking industry, most recently as Managing Director, Leveraged Finance at CIBC.  Mike is a graduate in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Mike is married to Kirsty, a lawyer, they met on a deal (whilst acting for opposite sides). They have no children, and enjoy spending the fruits of their labours on exotic scuba-diving and safari holidays, as well as indulging Mike’s passion for Michelin-starred food. Mike is a Manchester United season ticket holder and is notorious for not taking life too seriously. He takes ‘business casual’ attire to extremes and once turned up to a meeting in full combat dress. Mike enjoys live music across many genres, but blames one of his former colleagues for his most recently acquired guilty-pleasure – a love of country music.

 Mike coined the phrase ‘advising from the middle’ to reflect the view that good debt advice, while always serving the best interests of the client, should focus on finding the middle ground where deals are successfully concluded because the interests of management, shareholders and lenders are aligned.