HMT are delighted to announce that James Thomas is joining as a Corporate Finance Partner to establish and lead a specialist technology team.
James was previously a Partner at ICON Corporate Finance, an advisory boutique specialising in the technology sector. During his 14 years at ICON, James completed almost 50 fundraisings and M&A transactions across the TMT space including software, SaaS, B2B & B2C, internet of things (IoT), telecoms, nanotech and new materials companies.
More recently and immediately before joining HMT, James was a Director in BDO’s National Renewables team, leading on transactions in the Energy and Cleantech sectors. At BDO, James led assignments for energy technology companies and project developers totalling in excess of £600 million. Recent transactions include the disposal of a renewable energy portfolio company for a leading VCT, the refinancing of Europe’s largest Anaerobic Digestion facilities with leading banks and UK pension funds, a £100 million financing of an early stage battery storage company providing balancing services to the grid and a significant equity financing for a leading marine energy technology business.
A significant increase in fundraising and M&A activity has been witnessed across the TMT sector in recent years with continued interest from investors and a strong increase in transaction multiples driven by disruption in established markets such as Software, Fintech, Insurance, Transport and Energy to name but a few.
In the past few years, HMT has advised on a large number of significant transactions in the technology sector which includes three rounds of fundraising for Channel Mum, the investments in e-commerce and mobile platforms My 1st Years, Watchfinder, MPB and Hoop and the MBOs of software businesses CIPRH, The Property Software Group and ProspectSoft amongst others. The appointment of a specialist technology partner will strengthen our offering and expertise in this sector.
Andrew Thomson commented,
“We are delighted to welcome James to strengthen our corporate finance capabilities and lead our TMT offering. We have enjoyed an extremely strong deal flow across various sectors and have ambitions to continue to grow our business. Having made the decision to invest in the technology sector, we are delighted to attract someone with James’ experience and track record to lead this team.”
James Thomas commented,
“I am delighted to join HMT at a strategic time for the firm and to bring to the team my 20 years of experience in advising technology companies. HMT already has an excellent track record of completing transactions across a number of sectors including the TMT space and so I am delighted to be joining such a well-recognised and leading advisory firm to help them further build their specialist tech team and market offering.”