M&A Vet Thieriet Bows Fintech Consultancy

Alexis Thieriet, a former investment banker and mergers and acquisitions advisor, has set up Financial Technology Consulting Limited, a business development and M&A consultancy focused on European companies operating in the financial technology and market data industries.

Thieriet set up the company after corporate finance advisory firm Hawkpoint Partners, where he served as director between 2009 and January, was acquired by Toronto-based Canaccord Genuity last year. Prior to joining Hawkpoint—where he also served as associate director of its Financial Institutions Group between 2001 and 2004—Thieriet was executive director of the Financial Institutions Group at UBS.

“This background as an investment banker in the financial institutions space… gives me a good understanding of the institutions buying market data, and the main challenges they have from a macro perspective that impact their budgets overall,” Thieriet says, adding that market data will be one of several segments within the financial technology space, from related areas such as infrastructure management to completely separate areas like payments technology, business process outsourcing and trusts services.

The company will provide corporate development consulting, which could include advising on potential M&A activity, but will more likely involve business development to help smaller companies attract clients and achieve growth, or to help position themselves in a way that might attract investment  or an acquisition—though not necessarily to execute a sale. “From talking to everyone from startups to big firms who may be routinely pitched potential deals, it’s clear that there is a lot of demand for… applying business and M&A experience towards business growth, rather than just towards transactions,” he says.

In fact, Thieriet says he has already been engaged by four unnamed companies, all of which are seeking advice not about M&A, but about broader business development and corporate development issues.