GMT Communications Promotes Three

GMT Communications Partners, a private equity firm focused on the European communications sector, has made three promotions: Jonathan Gillbanks to managing director, Sebastian Sipp to principal and Vikram Krishna has to senior associate.

PRESS RELEASE

GMT Communications Partners (“GMT”), the leading European independent private equity group focused exclusively on the communications sector has made three new promotions within its senior team Jonathan Gillbanks has been promoted to Managing Director, Sebastian Sipp has been made a Principal and Vikram Krishna has become a Senior Associate.

Jonathan Gillbanks has been promoted to Managing Director from Senior Vice President.  In his new role, Jonathan will focus on refinancings and special projects for portfolio companies as well as new investments.  He was recruited by GMT in 2001 in an advisory role at PEPcom, a German cable television provider in which GMT was invested, and subsequently joined GMT’s investment team.  He led the recent submarine cable financing initiative of Melita, the Maltese cable television and broadband operator.  He was also involved in the recent refinancing of Redext, the Spanish outdoor advertising group.  He has substantial investment banking and advisory experience in the communications sector in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Latin America and speaks German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Sebastian Sipp has been promoted to Principal from Senior Associate.  He joined GMT in 2005 from Merrill Lynch investment banking and is actively involved in a range of GMT portfolio companies including DOCUgroup, the B2B publisher operating in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, and Melita.  Recently Sebastian worked on the joint venture majority buyout of Bigpoint with GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Fund and the DOCUgroup acquisition program.  In his new role, Sebastian will be taking a leading role in identifying and executing new investments.

Vikram Krishna has been promoted to Senior Associate from Associate.  He joined GMT in 2004 as a portfolio analyst from PwC Transaction Services and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Vikram has worked on portfolio companies including Multicom Security, the Scandinavian specialist telecoms operator and Primesight, the UK outdoor advertising group.  In 2008 he was actively involved in the successful exit of Asiakastieto, which generated an IRR of approximately 70%.

Jeff Montgomery, Managing Partner, GMT commented:

“We are delighted with the promotions of Jonathan, Sebastian and Vikram, which are all well deserved.  They are highly skilled professionals with fantastic commitment and enthusiasm; their individual contributions will continue to be invaluable as we look to strengthen and build GMT’s position as the leading private equity fund focused solely on the European communications sector.

Jonathan Gillbanks, Managing Director, GMT commented:

It is great to be part of a team that is consistently developing in anticipation of great investment opportunities in the communications sector. GMT Communications Partners’ sole focus and expert knowledge within its target space allows us to continue to originate and complete attractive investments despite a difficult market. Industry sector funds are becoming an increasingly important part of the private equity landscape and I am looking forward to my role as Managing Director with one of Europe’s leading sector funds.”

About GMT Communications Partners (www.gmtpartners.com)

GMT Communications Partners is a European independent private equity group focused exclusively on the communications sector, having actively invested in the European marketplace for the past 15 years. GMT is focused on providing buyout and expansion capital for high growth companies. As industry practitioners, GMT focuses heavily on developing new strategic directions for established businesses that are able to benefit from new communication technologies. Since its foundation in 1993, GMT has invested in 27 companies and completed over 100 transactions across 18 countries, exclusively in European media/communications.