“The pandemic has helped drive the growth in the Telecom sector as people use video and telephone means of communication as opposed to being in the office or traveling.”
Each month, Charles Town Holdings profiles a member of our investment banking team. This month we get to know Hubert Holmes.
Hubert leads the Telecom and Financial Data sectors for CTH. Previously, he was a senior director managing the $150mm Reference Data Business of ICE Data Services. He came to ICE as the Chi-X Global Executive Vice President responsible for the company’s global business development strategy. Chi-X Global owned and operated MTF and ATS markets around the world. The Chi-X has trading infrastructure technologies and services were created through the acquisition of Cicada Corporation of which Hubert was a founder. As EVP, he was responsible for relationships with major exchanges and financial institutions around the world. Hubert started his career at Reuters Group PLC, where his position was as EVP / Director of Global Securities Markets, responsible for the global product marketing of all equities and fixed-income products. Hubert holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in Economics and German from Rice University.
You recently served as the sell-side advisor to SkySwitch. Tell us about the deal process.
The SkySwitch deal process was divided into standard deal presentation, documentation and preparation including the building of a comprehensive virtual data room with over 6 GB of corporate documents and information which facilitated an extensive due diligence process. The other and more difficult part of the SkySwitch deal with managing the vastly different agendas of the various stakeholders. We went through several deal processes with three potential buyers and on the third attempt we were able to bring all deal participants together for a successful outcome. The multiple processes took in aggregate two years to complete but valuation continued to grow during the process.
Do you expect continued consolidation in the space?
Yes, the Telecom space is structurally, shifting from onsite / in-office infrastructure to cloud-based services. This structural shift is driving great growth for those firms that can facilitate communication as a service. This structural shift is driving a grab for market share and that’s driving a substantial uptick in acquisition activity.
How has the global pandemic affected these sectors?
The pandemic has helped drive the growth in the Telecom sector as people use video and telephone means of communication as opposed to being in the office or traveling.
What are your expectations for the VIOP and Telecom markets in 2021?
For the reasons above - new structural environment and the move from Office based infrastructure to the cloud will drive growth. Also, due to enhanced use of Telecom due to the pandemic as well as new enhanced bandwidth such as 5G, I think 2021 will be another good year for telecom.
Tell us three things that most people don’t know about Hubert Holmes.
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- I am a pilot
- I love fly fishing
- I come at investment banking from having been a user of banking services in my prior businesses not because I have previously been a banker.