Alantra expands its technology sector team with two senior appointments

Alantra, the global mid-market investment banking firm, has expanded its Technology Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector team with two senior appointments. James Chapman-Andrews joins as Partner and Head of UK TMT and Simon Devonshire OBE, joins as Technology Industry Adviser. Both appointments strengthen Alantra’s global TMT team, which currently employs over 30 professionals across the US and Europe and has completed eight deals in the lasts six months.

James Chapman-Andrews has more than 12 years of experience in TMT M&A, with a particular focus on voice and networking, unified communications, IT support and services, cloud and managed services and software.  Prior to joining Alantra, James worked at Oakley Advisory where he completed more than 30 transactions in mid-market technology and telecoms; clients included Adarma (formerly ECS Security), Southern Communications, and CSI.

Simon Devonshire OBE has been the UK Government’s Entrepreneur in Residence reporting to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is the writer of the incredibly successful Tall Man Blog.  Simon is an expert in digital innovation; corporate transformation; and how to scale-up both large and small enterprises.  He has co-founded business such as Zopa.com, a peer-to-peer lending company, and One Water, the UK’s leading ethical drinks brand. In 2016 he was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise and humanitarian issues. 

These appointments underline the positive momentum for M&A in the UK TMT market which is increasing, despite the global geopolitical backdrop. According to Alantra, the TMT sector saw 400 deals complete in H1 2019. Despite tensions between the US and China and Brexit uncertainty, which is supressing the level of global M&A activity, the outlook is proving more positive for the UK TMT sector, with deal volumes having grown by 10% from Q1-16 to Q1-19. Recent reports indicate that the UK now ranks in the five most attractive countries for TMT acquirers ahead of the US, France and Germany.

Richard Sanders, Partner at Alantra commented: “We are delighted that James and Simon have joined Alantra to help spearhead our work in the increasingly active TMT sector. Our society is thriving with innovation and entrepreneurship and there is an increasing need for capital investment in order to fuel the growth of these businesses.   Both James and Simon have considerable experience of working with companies where technology is driving significant change and their appointments will serve to strengthen our sector team in order to support our clients in capitalising on the many opportunities for M&A within the TMT sector.”