Christopher Jones leads Clearwater International’s London office

M&A advisory firm Clearwater International has boosted its leadership team with Christopher Jones, who becomes the firm’s fourth Managing Partner and Head of the London office.

Christopher Jones joins the mid-market corporate finance specialist from Houlihan Lokey, where he was a senior member in its consumer team. He brings two decades of experience to Clearwater International – having started his career at EY, he spent eight years at Arrowpoint Advisory (then Livingstone Partners) before joining GCA Altium (which last year was acquired by Houlihan Lokey).

Jones’ track record spans over 60 deals with a combined deal value of over €3 billion, across the consumer, e-commerce, leisure, and travel sectors.

In recent years Jones has led the sale of Travel Chapter twice (to ECI Partners and subsequently Intermediate Capital Group), advised KKR backed Travelopia twice, advised the shareholders of Watchfinder.co.uk on the sale to Richemont and advised Vitruvian Partners on its investments in both Travel Counsellors and MPB.com.

Now at Clearwater International, an M&A consultancy with 300+ dealmakers across 16 offices worldwide (mainly in Europe), Jones will lead the London office (one of the firm’s four offices in the UK alongside Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester) and serve as the head of the Consumer team across Europe.

“I have long admired Clearwater International and I’m incredibly proud to be joining this highly ambitious advisory firm at a time when it is growing on all fronts, both nationally and globally [in its latest 2021/22 financial year, the firm more than doubled its revenues to €153 million],” said Jones.

The UK team is one of Clearwater International’s largest across its footprint. In the latest financial year ending March 2022, the UK business advised on 68 transactions worth a combined €4 billion, with private equity work accounting for roughly half of all transactions.

“This is an exciting period for our business as we continue to look to invest in strategically important sectors and service lines. These plans and the Clearwater brand are enabling us to attract some of the best talent within our industry. We’re delighted to welcome Christopher to the leadership team,” said Mark Taylor, CEO of Clearwater International’s UK business.

Early 2022, Clearwater International’s 35-strong London team will move from its current base in Chandos Place, Covent Garden to larger offices at the newly refurbished 11 The Strand.