Charles Brennan

Charles Brennan joined Jefferies in May 2021 to cover European Software and IT Services companies, having previously covered the sector at Credit Suisse, RBS and ABN Amro with a total of over 25 years’ experience in covering the IT sector. Philipp Adam joined Jefferies in August 2025 as a graduate after finishing his master’s degree.

What We Are Known For

• Independent thinking: We pride ourselves on independent thinking, using a combination of sector knowledge, analysis of peers and experience of seeing how business models evolve to both support company strategies and, where appropriate, challenge strategic choices. A good example of this has been our work on Dassault, highlighting the misaligned approach to moving the business to subscription and the subsequent risks to delivering on expectations.
• Cash is King. Alongside strategic thinking our work is supported by a focus on quality of earnings. The first sanity check is robust cash conversion. However, we firmly believe cash flow, working capital developments and balance sheets moves are reliable leading indicators of potential future P&L stress. For us, this means we spend as much time focusing on metrics outside of the P&L, as well as the traditional focus on revenues, profits and earnings.
• Expert and data support. Our company specific work is supplemented with proprietary data points, including access to company management, expert calls to assess reseller momentum and analysis of trends in hiring and website traffic. These incremental data points provide a useful input into stress testing P&L assumptions.