Senior appointments at Cobalt

Cobalt Corporate Finance, the specialist European corporate finance adviser to technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies, has recruited Chris Williams, former corporate finance partner and global head of TMT at Deloitte, as its newest partner.

According to Cobalt, the appointment of Williams underpins its strategy of broadening and deepening its sector expertise, expanding its global network and increasing the size of transactions it undertakes.

Williams brings 10 years’ experience leading transactions and international teams at Deloitte and Andersen as well as business development experience in the TMT sector. He has led more than 50 TMT transactions ranging in size from the US$15m sale to TMNG Global of Cartesian to the US$649m sale of Singlepoint to Vodafone.

Cobalt managing partner Paddy McGwire said: “Cobalt is now embarking on the next stage of its evolution and Chris’s expertise will prove invaluable in driving our strategy forward. We have also recruited two other senior corporate finance executives with strong TMT backgrounds, contributing further to our ambitious development plans.”

Deal activity in the TMT sector has proved particularly buoyant, with technology venture capital investment increasing both in value and number of transactions during 2006, according to Cobalt’s latest quarterly analysis of activity in the sector in the UK and Ireland.