Imad Ilyas

I'm a Founding Partner of Churchill Partners, a Dubai-headquartered platform that acquires and scales established mid-market businesses across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Each acquisition is supported by a dedicated group of three to four experienced Operating Partners, chosen for their sector expertise, transaction experience and relationships. We focus on long-term ownership and genuine operational improvement, not financial engineering, and we act as a bridge between Western businesses and GCC capital. I'm also COO of Churchill Mergers, where we act exclusively for business owners, running confidential, competitive sale processes: founder exits, partial exits, private equity and minority investment, MBOs, cross-border deals, and debt and equity raises. Most businesses we advise are valued at £5m–£80m. My role covers mandate origination, buyer strategy, negotiation and execution. I came to deals from tax. I'm one of the Partners at Churchill Tax Advisers, where I've spent more than 10 years in UK tax, including as Head of Compliance & Tax Investigations. That meant tax fraud investigations, Code of Practice 8 and 9 and Proceeds of Crime Act enquiries, Tax Tribunal and HMRC ADR work, and historic UK and offshore disclosures. It shapes how I look at any business: what hasn't been disclosed often matters more than what's in the deck. I write here about acquiring and building mid-market businesses, selling and raising capital from the owner's side, tax risk in transactions, and how AI is changing dealmaking. FCCA · MSc Finance, Cass Business School · BSc (Hons) Applied Accounting, Oxford Brookes (First Class)If you're a business owner, operator or intermediary and would like a confidential conversation, message me.churchill-partners.com · churchillmergers.com