Arma Partners (Arma) saw record activity levels in its latest financial year, with the firm advising on 33 transactions and generated revenues in excess of USD100 million for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2021, even as Covid-19 required the team to collaborate remotely and introduced unfamiliar dynamics to deal making.
Arma Partners (Arma) saw record activity levels in its latest financial year, with the firm advising on 33 transactions and generated revenues in excess of USD100 million for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2021, even as Covid-19 required the team to collaborate remotely and introduced unfamiliar dynamics to deal making.
With an active pipeline of upcoming M&A and private capital transactions, Arma is well positioned to maintain its strong momentum through 2021 and beyond.
Arma is also continuing to expand its senior team and has appointed Barry Jaber as a Partner, effective 1 July, to further enhance its domain expertise in software and technology. Jaber was previously a Partner at Strategy & (formerly Booz & Co), the strategy consulting business of PwC, where he led the global technology industry practice and was a leader in the private equity practice. Before this he was with Ultra Electronics plc and BAE Systems in engineering roles, after completing degrees in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College and Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In addition, Claire Boydell, who has served as Arma’s General Counsel since 2015 and previously worked at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and in the M&A Legal team at Barclays, has also been promoted to Partner, increasing the size of the partnership to 11 in total.
Arma has continued to grow its team at all levels of the organisation to strengthen and deepen its coverage of the Digital Economy, including through the appointment of Xavier Moreels as a Senior Managing Director to provide enhanced coverage of the Benelux region. Xavier brings over 25 years of investment banking experience as Global Head of TMT Banking at ING, Head of European Technology Investment Banking at Piper Jaffray and Oppenheimer & Co. and, most recently, in leading the Benelux region for GCA Altium. Charles Chang, Fabian Zimmer and Rohit Shiralkar have also been promoted to the position of Managing Director and Arma has grown its junior headcount by 60 per cent over the financial year.
Paul-Noël Guély, Founder and Managing Partner of Arma Partners, says: “The past 12 months have been very challenging and I’m incredibly proud of the way that our team has pulled together to continue delivering superior advice and exceptional outcomes for our clients. Since the inception of our firm, we have been passionate advocates of the enormous growth potential of technology and the latest wave of digitisation globally has further validated that thesis. The new additions to our team will enable us to continue our strong momentum within both our market-leading M&A practice and our now well-established and fast-growing Private Capital practice.
“We are also delighted to welcome Barry, whom we have known and worked closely with for many years, as a Partner at Arma. Our clients will benefit from his expertise in technology, M&A and private equity and his appointment strengthens our long-standing and productive relationship with PwC. Similarly, Claire’s elevation to the partnership reflects her outstanding contribution to Arma and bolsters our leadership team as we continue to grow the business.”
During this period, Arma advised on 33 deals including the landmark USD12.2 billion buy-out of Visma; successful private equity recapitalisations of Xceptor by Astorg, IFS by TA Associates, Aareon by Advent, thinkProject by EQT, Jakala by Ardian, Node4 by Providence and Unit4 by TA Associates; cross-border strategic exits including the sales of NewSignature to Cognizant, Nordcloud to IBM and Planday to Xero; and seven growth capital financings including USD100-million-plus rounds raised for Catawiki, Rohlik and Wolt.
