Duff & Phelps to buy Kinetic Partners

· Carlyle-backed valuation experts Duff & Phelps agreed to buy professional services firm Kinetic Partners. The deal, which is expected to close in early 2015, will create a financial regulatory and compliance practice based on Kinetic Partners' services, including audit & assurance, tax advisory and corporate recovery.

· In related news, Kinetic Partners opened two new offices, one in Chicago and one in Singapore. The Chicago office, led by associate director Kathryn Lattner, will have a team focused on forensic and dispute advisory and corporate recovery services. The Singapore office is headed up by associate director Eddie Lim and will provide clients with tailored regulatory compliance advisory and consulting as well as a range of forensic and due diligence services.

· State Street is teaming up with Josh Lerner, professor of investment banking at Harvard Business School, and the Private Capital Research Institute (PCRI) to enhance research into private equity. The fund administration giant has also launched the GX Private Equity Index portal which will provide State Street clients with enhanced transparency into private capital market performance, trends and liquidity via a web-based application.

· Philadelphia-based financial services firm Janney Montgomery Scott promoted Cliff Booth and Joseph Culley, Jr. to investment banking co-heads. Prior to joining Janney, Booth headed the financial institutions investment banking group at Ferris, Baker Watts. Previously, Culley was on Philadelphia Securities Association's board of governors.

· Due diligence consultancy group the Kreller Group hired Ben Kahmann as a global due diligence consultant. Prior to his position at Kreller, Kahmann was a legal consultant with legal research firm LexisNexis as well as an account executive at Clear Channel Communications.

· Sandro Galfetti joined The Park Hill Group’s secondary advisory business as a principal based in London. Prior to joining Park Hill, Galfetti was a director with Capital Dynamics' secondary investment team in London and New York.

· Custodian bank BNP Paribas Securities Services is now offering a bridge financing service for private equity and real estate funds. The service provides fund manager clients of the bank with committed credit lines.

· Sovereign Capital, a UK private equity firm, agreed to sell compliance consultants Cordium to European Capital, a European debt investor. Financial details of the transactions were not disclosed, but the deal value is approximately £100 million, according to a source familiar with the matter.

· Bank of the West appointed Phil Kain, a specialist in the development of leveraged finance loans for middle market private equity sponsors, as director of the bank's private equity group. Prior to joining the bank, Kain spent nine years at Fifth Third Bank, where he led teams in its structured finance group.

· Fund services firm Elian, formerly Ogier Fiduciary Services, launched an app that provides a paperless alternative to due diligence reports. The app is called ID Check and allows you to collect due diligence reports from individual clients via a smartphone or tablet.