Frontline – September 2006

Monument boosts European team
Monument Group, an independent private equity placement agent, has hired Laurence Zage as director of its London affiliate. Zage has left Helix where he was vice president and head of research with responsibility for fund due diligence; this included analysis of manager track records, competitive landscapes, benchmarking, fund cash flow modeling, return attribution analysis, and various other fundraising materials. Before joining Helix, Zage was a barrister, engaged primarily in criminal defence advocacy. John McLaren, co-founder and managing director of Monument Group, relocated to London last year from the firm’s Boston office to become the managing director in the UK. In February, Martin Anthonsen, formerly a senior member of the investment teams at Nordic Alternative Investment Advisors and financial group Lönsförsökringar, joined McLaren as a director. Since 1998, over $4.5 billion in capital has been committed by 143 distinct non-US investors to funds raised by Monument Group.

Barclays strengthens US leveraged finance with 10 hires
Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the UK’s Barclays Bank, has expanded its leveraged finance team in the US with ten hires. Tim Broadbent has joined as a managing director in bank loan syndication after 22 years with JP Morgan. Dave Scudellari has joined as a managing director in leveraged finance from the Americas financing group at Goldman Sachs, where he had worked for 23 years.

Ed Kearns, Jack Melnikoff and Chris Dowicz have joined Barclays Capital as directors in bank loan sales from UBS, Goldman Sachs and CIBC World Markets respectively. Prior to UBS, Kearns spent 19 years at Goldman Sachs. Ian Palmer has joined as a director in bank loan syndication from CIBC World Markets, where he spent 10 years, Faisal Hamdard as an associate director in bank loan trading from UBS. Kevin Baer, previously at Rosedale Capital, has been appointed a director and cash CDS trader, Sarah Cole has joined as an associate director from Goldman Sachs, and George Brickfield has moved from UBS to become an associate director in distressed debt trading.

CMF names new communications manager
CMF Associates, a financial advisory company focusing on private equity, middle-market and international companies, announced the hire of their new communications manager, Susan Busch, who previously spent 13 years at employee screening company Vertical Screen. She will manage corporate communications and marketing and public relations initiatives for the firm. Busch also spent five years at North American Publishing, where she had been editor of a packaging and printing-related magazine, and has held several public relations account executive positions at various advertising and public relations agencies.

Demica appoints US office operations head
London-based Demica, a securitization structuring and finance reporting advisor for private equity and investment banks, has named Barry Wood as senior vice president of sales to head its Atlanta-based US operation. He had previously worked as managing director at Marsh & McLennan Securities and as managing director for the term asset-backed securities group and the asset securitization group at Société General/SG Cowen Securities. Demica, which also has an office in Tokyo, is a wholly owned subsidiary of US conglomerate JM Huber.

PWC names new head of insurance
PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that John Merrigan will become head of the insurance risk management solutions group, part of the consulting firm’s transaction services practice. He succeeds Cathy McKeon, who retired in July. Merrigan has been part of PwC’s insurance risk management practice for eight years. He most recently served as a managing director in New York. He is currently the outsourced risk management advisor for the portfolio company of a major private equity firm that PwC declined to name. Merrigan is an Associate in Risk Management accredited by the Insurance Institute of America. Mike Burwell is the head of the firm’s transaction services group.

Piper Jaffray, CIT join forces
Financial services firms Piper Jaffray & Co. and CIT Group have announced a strategic partnership to provide services to middle-market companies. Piper Jaffray will provide investment banking and debt products, while CIT will provide high-yield, equity and equity-linked offerings, according to a press release. Rick Wolfert, CIT’s vice chairman for commercial finance, said in a statement: ?Our strategic relationship with Piper Jaffray will enhance the range of capital market solutions we currently offer our clients.? CIT is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cogent Partners grows team
Bernhard Engelien has joined Cogent Partners, a private equity secondary advisor, as a director. He will be based in London and focus on advising limited partners in the UK and continental Europe. Before Cogent Partners, Engelien was at McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy, where he was an associate principal advising financial services companies and private equity firms on a broad range of strategy and corporate finance topics in the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East. Engelien started his career at Goldman Sachs in London. Cogent Partners has advised on more than $11 billion of secondary transactions over the last four years. The firm was founded in 2001 and has offices in Dallas, New York, London and Tokyo.

BNP Paribas bolsters high-yield capital markets group
French bank BNP Paribas has hired Max Biagosch in its European high-yield capital markets group in London. At BNP Paribas, Biagosch reports to Youssef Khlat, head of European high-yield capital markets. Biagosch joined BNP Paribas from Deutsche Bank in London where he has been since 2001, most recently as vice president in leveraged finance. He also worked in the M&A group, focusing on the technology, media and telecommunications sector. Biagosch’s hire follows the appointments of Alain Dib, Douglas Clarisse and Roland Nabhan to the European high-yield group last year.

Northern Trust launches PE team in Dublin
Northern Trust, a Chicago-based investment manager, has set up a dedicated private equity fund administration team in Dublin, Ireland. Northern Trust is a ?first mover? in Dublin in this area, said Paul Guilbert, head of private equity administration at Northern Trust, in a statement. ?We are already serving private equity clients in Dublin and are seeing a lot of interest in our market-leading solutions,? he said. Dublin has recently become a popular offshore market due to the fact that remains a part of the European Union while still being offshore, which can be beneficial to some investors for tax purposes. Northern Trust has operated a similar center in the offshore market of Guernsey since the mid-1980’s.

Campbell Lutyens hires Langton and Weiner
Campbell Lutyens, a UK private equity advisory specialist, has made two appointments to its London and New York placement teams. Paula Langton has joined from the private fund group of Credit Suisse in London, where she was a project manager for global private equity fundraisings for buyout, growth equity, secondary and mezzanine funds. Before the private fund group, Langton worked in Credit Suisse’s global industrial services group. Greg Weiner has joined Campbell Lutyens’ New York office from Merrill Lynch’s alternative investment fund placement group. Recent placement duties for Campbell Lutyens include Malaysia’s Navis Capital Partners, which closed on $315 million for its Asian mid-market focused Navis Asia Partners IV fund; and Clearwater Capital Partners, which raised $300 million for its Asia distressed debt and special situations fund last year.

US transaction advisory group expands at Alvarez Marsal
Alvarez & Marsal has added new talent to its US transaction advisory group division. Anthony Caporrino has been appointed managing director to the firm’s New York office, after having previously worked at the transaction advisory practices of Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen. Other new hires to Alvarez & Marsal’s New York office include Jonathan Schrubbe (previously at Ernst & Young) as director and Deep Parekh (previously at KPMG) as manager. The firm has also recruited new blood to its Chicago office, with Eric Lorge (previously at KPMG) joining Alvarez & Marsal as a senior director and Raju Patel (previously at Deloitte & Touche) as manager. ?Market dynamics are leading savvy private equity firms to place even greater focus on identifying opportunities to extract value throughout the lifecycle of the deal, creating a greater need for an integrated approach and demand for advisors with strong operational backgrounds,? said Jack McCarthy, co-head and managing director of the group, in a press statement.