Sheffield Haworth closes Paris office, hires in London and Hong Kong

After three years of running an office in Paris, the CEO Tim Sheffield said: "We found that Paris offered a small domestic market that was going through a very difficult time. It seems to make more sense to run our businesses from two European centres - London and Frankfurt - rather than from three."

The closure of the Paris office will mean the loss of two consultants.

In London Sheffield Haworth has hired Gilbert Swann, a specialist consultant in project and structured finance from EC International. His arrival is intended to broaden the search firm's coverage of the structured finance market. It has focused primarily on M&A, private equity and venture capital until recently.

The firm has also hired Adrian Bottomley from Exchange Consulting Group in London to work in the Hong Kong office

Early this year Sheffield Haworth added a non-executive director, Simon Roberts, who brought with him 20 years experience of corporate finance and venture capital. It also recruited Ian Jones from Wellington Consulting as director of its corporate finance division.

The firm says it plans on further hires in the near future in a bid for wider structured finance coverage, and to bolster its legal division.