TMT M&A Awards 2018 winners include Macquarie, Vodafone, Credit Suisse & CityFibre

LONDON - Nov. 29, 2018 - PRLog -- The winners of the TMT M&A Awards 2018 were announced on Tuesday night in London recognising the outstanding merger and acquisition activity by telecom, media and tech companies and their banking, strategy and legal advisers.

Winners from industry, private equity, investment banking and advisory included Macquarie, Antin Infrastructure, Vodafone, Liberty Global, LionTree, Credit Suisse, EQT, Spotify, Thales, Open Fiber, EuNetworks, BNP Paribas, HSF and PPF.

21 Awards were presented for TMT Deals of the Year, Companies, Advisers and Leaders at the Hilton Hotel Bankside, as the first evening of the annual three day TMT Finance World Congress.

Dominic Lowndes, Managing Director of TMT Finance the event and awards organisers said: "The strength of this year's shortlists and winners underlines what an outstanding year 2018 has been for dealmaking and investment in the TMT sector globally. On behalf of TMT Finance we would like to congratulate all nominated companies and the eventual winners. TMT M&A Awards goes from strength to strength each year and we look forward to building the platform further next year."

This year's winners are:

Telecom M&A Deal of the Year - EMEA
Macquarie-led consortium's acquisition of TDC for US$6.7bn
Advised by: Barclays and Nordea (Macquarie consortium); LionTree and Morgan Stanley (TDC shareholders)

Mid-Cap Telecom M&A Deal of the Year - EMEA
EQT's acquisition of Caiway from Rabo Bouwfonds Communication Infrastructure for E453m
Advised by: Morgan Stanley (EQT); ING (Rabo Bouwfonds)

TMT Private Equity Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and TCV's acquisition of EQT VI's 35% stake in Sportradar for E777m
Advised by: Evercore (EQT), Citi (CPPIB)

Cloud Services Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
GTT Communications' acquisition of Interoute from Aleph Capital Partners, Crestview Partners and the Sandoz Family Foundation for £1.65bn.
Advised by: Credit Suisse, Evercore (Interoute shareholders).

TMT Infrastructure Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
The sale by Cinven's Fifth Fund of Ufinet Group to a consortium led by Antin Infrastructure Partners (Ufinet Spain) and Cinven's Sixth Fund (Ufinet International) for a total consideration of E2bn.
Advised by: Natixis, UBS (Cinven), Deutsche Bank (Antin)

Tech M&A Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
Thales' acquisition of Gemalto in a deal worth around E4.8bn
Advised by: Lazard, Messier Maris & Associés and Société Générale (Thales) Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan (Gemalto).

Fintech Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
Vantiv's acquisition and subsequent merger with UK-listed Worldpay Group for £8bn, valuing the combined business at £22.2bn.
Advised by: Goldman Sachs, Barclays (Worldpay), Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Centerview Partners (Vantiv)

Media M&A Deal of the Year 2018 – EMEA
Comcast's acquisition of a majority stake in Sky from 21st Century Fox, valuing Sky at £29.7bn.
Advised by: Barclays, Morgan Stanley, PJT Partners (Sky) Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Evercore, Robey Warshaw, Wells Fargo Securities (Comcast), Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, CenterView (Fox), Greenhill (Sky shareholders)

TMT Acquisition Financing Deal of the Year 2018 - EMEA
PPF Telecom's E3.025bn loan facilities supporting the acquisition of Telenor's CEE assets.
Lenders: BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Erste Group Bank, HSBC, Société Générale, UniCredit Bank.

TMT Infrastructure Loan of the Year 2018 – EMEA
Open Fiber's E3.5bn financing package to build a new Italian FTTH network.
Lead Banks and Advisers: BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Unicredit Cassa depositi e prestiti, European Investment Bank.

TMT IPO of the Year 2018 - EMEA
Direct Listing of Swedish music streaming service, Spotify, on the New York Stock Exchange valuing the company at US$26.5bn.
Advised by: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Allen & Company.

TMT Deal of the Year 2018 - Emerging Markets
Liberty Global's split off of Latin American subsidiary LiLAC, and subsequent launch as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ Global Select Market
Advised by: LionTree

TMT Deal of the Year 2018 - Asia
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular's merger of Indian MNO businesses
Advised by: Morgan Stanley, Robey Warshaw, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Kotak Investment Bank, Rothschild and UBS (Vodafone)

TMT M&A Growth Story 2018
CityFibre

TMT Private Equity Firm 2018
Antin Infrastructure

Woman TMT M&A Leader of the Year - 2018
Jennifer Smith, CFO, EuNetworks

TMT M&A Leader of the Year - 2018
Jake Donavan, President of Europe, LionTree

TMT Due Diligence Adviser of the Year 2018
Solon Management Consulting

TMT M&A Legal Adviser of the Year 2018
Herbert Smith Freehills

TMT M&A Adviser of the Year 2018 – EMEA
Credit Suisse

TMT M&A Financing Bank of the Year 2018 – EMEA
BNP Paribas

For more information on the winners, please go to https://www.tmtfinance.com/awards/