Middle market investment bank Harris Williams & Co has opened an office in Germany.
The Frankfurt office is led by managing director Jeffery Perkins who has broad experience across many industries.
The new office, which will focus on M&A transactions across Europe, will strengthen the firm’s cross-border deal flow, its access to buyers across continental Europe and its ability to bring US buyers to European sellers. This is the firm’s second European office opened in three years; in December 2009, Harris Williams opened its London office led by Thierry Monjauze.
Harris Williams is one of the largest middle market M&A advisers. Although global M&A deal volume was down in 2012, Harris Williams closed a record number of transactions with more than 75 deals, enabling the firm to continue gaining market share.
With the opening of the Frankfurt office, Harris Williams will have eight offices across the US and Europe and approximately 215 employees.
Perkins has 19 years of investment banking experience in Germany. He joins Harris Williams from Daiwa Corporate Advisory (formerly Close Brothers Germany), where he was responsible for cross-border assignments in and out of German speaking markets. While at Close Brothers, he established and led the European automotive and flow control groups and was responsible for the industrials team in Germany.
“While many other firms are scaling back, we believe now is the time to grow,” says Chris Williams, co-founder of Harris Williams. “Our firm has performed exceptionally well despite market turmoil and the expansion into Germany offers a tremendous opportunity for us to continue to build our platform.”
