2027 Entry Criteria

Companies & People

  • Entries should highlight key individual and company successes across relevant deal successes in the timeframe of Oct 1, 2025 and Sept 30, 2026.
  • First our editorial team will analyse all entries, plus extensive data and insight available on the TMT Finance platform.  
  • Next our editorial team will produce shortlists in each Companies, People and Deals category, benchmarking against rigorous metrics in each case, and as detailed below.  
  • Finally, all shortlists then get sent - with a comprehensive Judges Pack - to our board of expert Judges who hold a series of judging calls and vote in each category. Our team then tallies up the scores and go back to the judges in the case of any tiebreakers.
  • We then announce the winners on the night of the awards.
  • We recommend entries use case studies to illustrate the above with specific examples of standout work carried out in the above time period.
  • Judging will take into account volume and value of deals undertaken, as well as complexity, individual achievement, innovative strategic work and/or standout leadership – depending on the category.
  • All entries must be written in English and submitted via our online form and should be no longer than 500 words.
  • Your entry needs to tell the story behind these numbers – our judges are looking for how you, the person or company added value to deal processes and solutions to challenging circumstances.
  • All transactions are captured by our shortlisting process and mandates to any party on the deal are valid across buyer, seller or target.
  • For the Legal Advisory Trailblazer category, we are looking for a case study highlighting standout work on a single, particular deal (or series of deals) that was groundbreaking, innovative and complex. Tell us the story behind the numbers.
  • For the Growth Story of the Year category we are looking for demonstrated growth by a company within the last 12 months, including organic growth and expansion, investment and financing, M&A or partnerships, and building out senior management teams.
  • For the Financing Bank category we are looking for the numbers (value and volume of deals done within the last 12 months) as well as specific case studies highlighting particularly complex financing structures or transactions.

Deals of the Year

  • Deals must be valued at a minimum of £50m.
  • Only deals which TMT Finance defines as Digital Infrastructure - including Datacentres, Fibre, Telecoms, Towers and Cloud - will be included.  
  • Deals must have officially closed between Oct 1, 2025 and Sept 30, 2026 including regulatory approval.
  • All entries must be written in English and submitted via our online form and should be no longer than 500 words.
  • Your entry may choose to highlight your successes across a number of different deals or one landmark transaction that tells the story of your year.
  • We recommend entries for Deals of the Year and People and Companies use case studies highlighting client successes to presenting a successful deal.
  • Where possible, please include key financials, dates, region, key parties involved, rationale and unique points of the deal including results and performance metrics as well as the team size, mix and collaborators.
  • Your entry needs to tell the story behind these numbers – our judges are looking for how you, the person or company added value to deal processes and solutions to challenging circumstances.
  • Deals will be judged on factors including size, scale, market impact, complexity, financing, and any other relevant conditions under which the transaction was executed.
  • All corporate and private equity transactions are captured by our shortlisting process and mandates to any party on the deal are valid across buyer, seller or target.

Advisor League Tables

  • Financial and legal advisors are tracked on all M&A deals with value over £50m where information on the advisory mandate is available via public sources, TMT Finance data, as well as submissions directly to TMT Finance.
  • We are looking for data for all M&A deals announced between 1st October 2025 - 30 September 2026.  
  • Credit is given only to M&A deals. Other transactions including debt financing, JVs, IPOs or other equity/hybrid deals are not given credit.  
  • Credit is given for any deals which TMT Finance defines as Digital Infrastructure, including subsectors within our sector pillars of Datacentres, Fibre, Telecoms and Towers.  
  • Credit for financial advisory is given to financial advisors and providers of fairness opinions, excluding broker, financing provider or arranger and providers of advice related to financial due diligence only.
  • Credit is given to advisers of the principals on buy side and sell side (bidder, target or seller) or the parent company of the principals in case of a transaction with a subsidiary.

  • Legal Advisor league table credit: Each legal advisor representing the buy-side/successful bidder will receive an equal pro-rata share of the deal value according to the total number of legal advisors on the buy-side of the deal. The same is true for the sell-side of the deal. Each legal advisor will receive full deal volume credit.

  • Financial Advisor league table credit: Each financial advisor representing the buy-side/successful bidder will receive an equal pro-rata share of the deal value according to the total number of financial advisors on the buy-side of the deal. The same is true for the sell-side of the deal. Each financial advisor will receive full deal volume credit.

  • Geography is defined by the dominant geography (location of the headquarters) of the target. In case of the sale of multiple companies or assets with different geographies, dominant target geography is based on the geography with most revenue or, if not available, the geography in which the majority of the companies/assets are based.
  • Industry on a transaction is defined by the dominant industry of the target company.
  • We give credit to both Volume and Value of transactions worked on, and as such have a League Table for each, for both Financial and Legal Advisers.
  • If data for the Deal Value is unavailable then we cannot include that deal in the Deal Value League Table credits.