Frontline – April 2007

New England Financial to offer VC insurance plan
New England Financial of North Jersey, a division of Boston-based fi-nancial and insurance service provider New England Financial, is offering Venture Capital Protection Plus, an insurance plan targeting the venture capital market. The plan provides death, disability or severance to venture capital, angel investors and private equity professionals. ?These products can build cash value that can be accessed to provide for severance packages and/or overall compensation packages to attract new or replacement talent,? said Jack Giacalone, Venture Capital Protection Plus’s project manager. Underwriting also allows the company to assess insurance risk through due diligence processes, Ed Barrett, the plan’s managing partner, said in a statement. New England Financial, a division of the MetLife Company, offers its investment services through its broker dealer New England Securities and through related companies.

Bryan Garnier appoints corporate finance technology director
European investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co has hired Olivier Beaudouin to be a director of its corporate finance technology group. Beaudouin is in charge of hardware and communications and works from the bank’s Paris office. He will work with the technology, telecommunications and media team to make deals in the technology sector. He comes to the firm from the investment bank Societe Generale, where he led the firm’s hardware technology group. He previously worked in SG’s New York and São Paolo offices and provided capital raising and advisory services to companies in Latin America. Garnier’s technology unit focuses on middle market companies.

Close Brothers gets affiliate in India
European independent corporate finance house Close Brothers has expanded its international network by forming an alliance with Indian investment bank Allegro Capital Advisors. ?With the surge of international acquisition activity we are currently seeing from Indian corporates, we expect to have considerable cross border activity between our two organizations,? Richard Grainger, the chief executive officer of Close Brothers, said in a statement. The number of international acquisitions conducted by Indian corporations increased significantly in recent years from three deals worth about $100 million in 2002 to 51 deals worth $18 billion in 2006, Close Brothers said in the statement. ?This is a massive country that is waking up to international opportunities and the potential for bold Indian corporates with an eye to overseas expansion is huge,? Grainger said. Close Brothers is the largest listed UK investment bank. Based in London, the firm has additional of-fices in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Allegro is based in Bangalore and employs 200 professionals located in 21 offices throughout India.

The Burgiss Group expands to the front office
The Burgiss Group, a software and web services provider for the private equity industry announced the newest addition to its Private i suite of products, Private i FrontOffice. Private i FrontOffice is a hosted, browser based application to manager offerings and due diligence in collaborative, virtual deal rooms. ?Private I FrontOffice marries the power of document management to due diligence and deal management,? says Jim Kocis, president of The Burgiss Group. ?Its secure, team-based approach allows both internal and external partners to collaborate on a deal-by-deal basis.? FrontOffice’s aim is to assist deal teams in significantly reducing their deal cycle time and managing historical due diligence of past offerings by centralizing deal specific communications, organizing and storing documents and automating business processes. Private i FrontOffice is the fifth product in the company’s Private i line. According to the company’s web site, the firm caters to limited partners, advisors and funds of funds, with over 200 clients in 14 countries.

FTI Consulting promotes 17
FTI Consulting, a global consulting firm dedicated to legal, financial and reputation issues, promoted 17 employees to senior managing director and senior vice president positions. Among them include Felecia Battista, who specializes in accounting, financial reporting, fi-nancial restatements, corporate governance and SEC disclosure requirements; Timothy Dragelin, who deals with both in-and out-of-court reorganizations; Adrian Frankum, who provides restructuring advice to some of the firm’s largest and most complex clients; Richard Haynes, who joined the firm after a four year stint with the enforcement divisions of the SEC; Barbara Hovarth who advises private equity clients and strategic investors on due diligence and many post-acquisition projects; Shelly Irvine, who addresses intellectual property matters; Kevin Kirby who tackles restructuring, bankruptcy proceedings, troubled company consulting among other issues; and Daniel Ventricelli who specializes in accounting and financial investigations.

JPMorgan acquires fund services business
JPMorgan has bought the fund service business of Integrated Investment Services, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based provider of fund administration and accounting to US-based mutual funds, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007. JPMorgan’s US Fund Services division has offices in the US, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. The business processes about 30 million securities transactions each year. Integrated Investment Services is a subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, a Cincinnati-based group of financial services companies with about $47 billion in assets under management.

Christian & Timbers names McCabe vice chairman
The executive search firm Christian & Timbers named Joseph McCabe vice chairman. McCabe will also serve as a member of the firm’s executive committee. McCabe specializes on searching for senior executives in the financial services and human resources outsourcing business. He joined the firm after serving as managing partner at Heidrick & Struggles’ Boston office. Before moving into the executive search industry, McCabe was the vice president of human resources for Fidelity Investments 401(k). Brian Sullivan, chairman and CEO of Christian Timbers said, ?Joe McCabe’s complete financial services outsourcing experience complements our investment management expertise.?

Atlantic-Pacific hires Wanat, promotes Chase
Atlantic-Pacific, the global placement agent for alternative investment funds and direct private placements, hired Ivan Wanat as a director, and promoted John Chase to the position of principal from senior distribution professional. Wanat will focus on hedge fund deal management and joins the firm from Credit Suisse where he was a vice president with the private fund group. While there, Wanat was responsible for deal management and coordination of all marketing activities for several hedge fund advisors and actively sourced, evaluated and performed due diligence on hedge fund managers seeking a distribution partner. Prior to his tenure at Credit Suisse, he was a vice president at Lazard Asset Management raising capital for alternative investments. John Chase has been with the firm since 2005, and the firm’s president Joseph Herman acknowledged his contribution to the firm in a statement announcing the promotion.

CCMP builds IT services support
JPMorgan Partners spinout CCMP Capital Advisors chose Tekmark Global Solutions to design, build and manage its infrastructure technology for its New York and London offices in January. Tekmark provides product development and network deployment services that strive to improve efficiency. ?Empowering our employees with the technology they need to successfully meet their objectives is among our highest priorities,? Dina Colombo, CCMP’s vice president, said in a statement.

American Capital sets up second lien group
Bethesda, Maryland-based American Capital Strategies established a second lien group in early March. The group offers secured and unsecured junior capital investments and invests in junior capital with a concentration on syndicated investments. Managing director John Capperella will lead the group. Vice presidents Steven Devlloo and Ryan Brauns, as well as associates Dipalee Rathod, Matt Crumrine and Kathy Grabenstatter, will also join. The group has invested about $86 million in six companies: sock designer, manufacturer and retailer Gold Toe-Moretz; nutritional supplements and skin-care products maker Neways International; special information management software provider Integraph; New York health management services provider MagnaCare Holdings; animal health products distributor Butler Animal Health Supply; and oil and gas company Forest Alaska Operating. ?The second lien market has grown significantly in the past five years,? Capperella said in a statement. 2006 was another record breaking year for the second lien business, with the market size reaching $30 billion and transaction volume and size increasing considerably. American Capital is the second largest US publicly traded alternative asset manager and has $11 billion in assets under management.

Fulcrum appoints client relations director
Fulcrum Limited, a global hedge fund and alternative asset management administrator, has hired Sean Moran to be its director of client relations. He will work with the company’s client services, sales and marketing groups and will report to Gary Yannazzo, the chief operating officer of Fulcrum’s US division. Moran joins the company from the New York office of HSBC Alternative Fund Services, formerly the Bank of Bermuda, where he was the manager of client relations. He previously held a variety of positions at Bank of Bermuda’s offices in Bermuda and Hong Kong. Founded in Bermuda in 1995, Fulcrum has offices in Bermuda, New York, London, Canada, the Cayman Islands and India.

JPMorgan expands e-tax system
JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services expanded JPMorgan E-Tax, an Internet-based tax service for institutional investors, in March. The system provides global tax information, tax rates and breaking news. Clients come from investment banks, asset management firms, pension funds, banks and life insurance companies. The service is the only one of its kind, Larry Manning, the head of JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services’ Tax Services, said in a statement. The tax profiles cover about 90 markets worldwide and are updated daily. The service includes a search engine, customizable settings and links to industry sources. The news flashes provide breaking news about the global tax industry and are searchable back to 1998. It includes Tax Monitor, a monthly publication. The E-Tax service is available to JPMorgan clients.

Siesko Partners bulks up due diligence team
Siesko Partners, a corporate insurance and risk management consultancy, appointed two new executives to expand their legal due diligence across the firm’s insurance and private equity groups. Scott Williams and Neil Weiss will be responsible for implementing due diligence practices on behalf of Seisko’s private equity client by providing assessments of potential acquisitions’ insurance policies. Williams joins the firm from VIP Wireless, LLC where he conducted due diligence on a number of that company’s acquisitions. Weiss worked on a number of due diligence transactions while at the law firm of Sonnenschein, Sherman & Deutsch LLP.