The RGS Old Guildfordian Magazine
Newmedica’s Darshak Shah (third left) at the announcement of the new partnership with Specsavers
discovered that he “didn’t particularly enjoy the course”, he briefly joined Peter in KPMG’s corporate finance team, by then based in Crawley, while he reevaluated his options. The time out was invaluable, giving Darshak further exposure to another aspect of finance and accountancy and allowing him time to earn a place on the newly launched Economics and Management course at Trinity College, Oxford. The two fell out of touch until an OG London Dinner in 2006. In the interim, Darshak had travelled the world as a management consultant and met a Bristolbased eye surgeon called Jeremy Diamond. Together they founded the Consultant Eye Surgeons Partnership (CESP), out of which Newmedica grew. Peter, meanwhile, had left KPMG to found his own corporate finance firm, Meta. Newmedica now operates from 25 sites across England which include community and GP sites, NHS Trusts, private hospitals and mobile clinical units. The services that it delivers covers a wide range of ophthalmology, including outpatients and surgery, adult, paediatric and neonatal ophthalmology. Set up in 2007, specifically to clear a backlogged waiting list for Bristol Eye Hospital, Newmedica were quickly fielding calls from other hospitals keen to see the same results. The company soon needed capital investment and Darshak turned to Peter. Nothing came of those early conversations, but a few years later Peter and Meta stepped in to help negotiate the buyout of Newmedica from CESP by Darshak, Jeremy and two other doctors. It was a challenging time, balancing financial issues with personal and professional relationships.
process with financial investors, conversations were also initiated with interested parties in the eyecare sector. One of these was Specsavers. Selecting the right partner was an iterative process between Newmedica and Meta, working towards an opportunity that would deliver on all the factors that mattered to the Newmedica team. As Darshak said, “what was interesting about the process was that we started the journey looking for finance, but as we went through the process, our evaluation criteria changed. We were looking for the option that gave the highest probability of success, not just for the shareholders, but for the company and, ultimately, the patients we are seeking to serve”. Referring to the deal, Peter says, “we do all sorts of deals, moving and transforming wealth but this one was different, because in working through it, we had a very small involvement in something that potentially has a massive impact on the man and woman in the street with eye problems. When this works to its fullest extent, it will mean that people won’t go blind sitting on waiting lists, that they have better eye care than they would have otherwise”. Meeting in 1992, at that time unaware of their shared RGS past, Peter and Darshak had no idea of the journey they would take together in the years to come. A series of fortunate incidents and crossed paths (Darshak himself was diagnosed with an eye condition during his time at Oxford by Guildford optometrist and much-loved OG, Roger Nicklin) led ultimately to the 2016 partnership.
As Peter says, “the money side of it is one thing, but the people thing is probably more important. Our role is to balance the relationship between buyer, seller and possibly a funder as well. There are things that need to be negotiated, relationships that need to be preserved, there are things that need to be done now but with a view to what is happening in the future.”
Both Darshak and Peter recently joined RGS Connect and talk warmly about the benefits it can offer to younger OGs and future students. “Our situation didn’t come about through RGS Connect because it didn’t exist in 1992, but in an informal sort of way it did, because if it hadn’t been for RGS, for Fred Bailey, for those connections”, says Peter, “this wouldn’t have happened.”
Following the transaction, Darshak and Peter met regularly, exploring opportunities to grow Newmedica, but also dealing with periods of uncertainty in the public-private partnership landscape. In 2015, keen to scale up from a successful business operating within its own resources to bringing in external finance and support, Darshak turned to Peter to look for formal funding opportunities. As part of the fundraising
• Find out more about Darshak and Peter’s work at newmedica.co.uk and metacorporatefinance.co.uk • Share your OG / RGS connections with Philippa Green, Alumni Relations Officer: pmg@rgsg.co.uk / +44 (0)1483 887 143 • Sign up to RGS Connect via the OG pages in the Our Community section of rgs-guildford.co.uk or directly at rgsconnect.com
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