Frontline – February 2008

FRONTLINE 2008-02-01 Staff Writer <b>Prudential Capital appoints head of commercial asset</b><br />finance Chicago-based Prudential Capital Group (PCG), an investment business of Prudential Financial, Inc., has announced the naming of Robert Penfold managing director of its commercial asset

Prudential Capital appoints head of commercial asset
finance Chicago-based Prudential Capital Group (PCG), an investment business of Prudential Financial, Inc., has announced the naming of Robert Penfold managing director of its commercial asset finance group, which is based in Atlanta, GA. Prior to joining PCG, Penfold spent four years serving small businesses through his own consulting firm. In his 12 years at Bank of America Leasing and Capital Group, Penfold managed an international team of professionals responsible for large ticket direct originations. In addition to Penfold’s appointment, Roderick L. Roberts was named chief credit officer and Brian D. Shapiro will lead all marketing and originations for the commercial asset finance group. Both executives will report to Penfold. PCG’s commercial asset finance business was just acquired in February 2007. ?Bob comes to us with a varied range of tenured experience in all major areas of the capital equipment financing and leasing industry,? says Robert Derrick, managing director of Prudential Capital Group. ?His experience and perspective generates the viewpoint and knowledge that will guide the future direction and success of this group.?

Marlin & Associates adds one
NY-based Marlin & Associates (M&A), the investment banking and strategic consulting business, has announced the hiring Jason Panzer. Panzer most recently was the vice president of business development at FactSet Research Systems, a provider of financial information and analytic applications for investment professionals. He began his career in the M&A group at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, where he worked on public and private mergers, stock/asset acquisitions, tender offers, private equity investments, including the bailout of Long-Term Capital Management; the Citigroup/Travelers merger; and buyouts with top private-equity firms including KKR and Soros. Later, Jason spent three years as the CFO of JCF Group, the Paris-based provider of global earnings-estimates and other financial data. In 2004, Jason helped to manage the sale of JCF to FactSet, where, as an executive, he successfully led the acquisition and integration of numerous other online data and application software businesses.

Allegiance Capital names vice chairman
Dallas, TX-based investment bank Alliance Capital has announced the appointment of John Sloan to the newly created position of vice chairman. Sloan will be responsible for leading the firm’s largest and most complex transactions and will initiate the Alliance’s first private equity fund in the first quarter of this year. He has more than twenty-five years’ experience as a chief executive of private equity and venture capital organizations, which included a 14 year stint as president and CEO of the Thompson Company where he oversaw several buyouts, and served as an advisor to the Thompson family’s $5.1 billion buyout of the NYSE-listed, Southland Corporation, owner of the 7-11 chain of convenience stores. David Lonsdale, president and managing director of Allegiance says, ?He [Sloan] will be instrumental in leading the firm’s growing emphasis on large-scale, complex business transactions.? Sloan adds, ?With over $1 billion in current M&A assignments, Allegiance Capital has the scope of operations and market presence which I believe will enable the company to become the leading investment banking firm in the middle market.?

Abernathy MacGregor to represent Summit Partners
Private equity and venture capital firm Summit Partners has hired The Abernathy MacGregor Group to handle its public relations business. Abernathy MacGregor works with many private equity firms, including Hellman & Friedman, JMI Equity, Warburg Pincus and Oak Hill Capital Partners. Summit was founded in 1984, and currently manages seven private equity funds with combined capital of $7.4 billion, three subordinated debt funds totalling $930 million and two venture capital funds totalling $470 million. Its most recent funds are a 2005 vintage, $3 billion private equity fund and a 2005 vintage, $300 million venture capital fund. The firm has invested in some 290 companies, including E-Tek Dynamics, FleetCor Technologies, Physicians Formula and Web Reservations International.

CP Eaton bolsters London office
Global placement agent CP Eaton Partners has hired a new associate, Lars Linqvist, for its London office. Linqvist comes to CP Eaton from structured equity financing boutique Navigator Asset Management, where he was a vice president. He also worked in institutional sales in marketing at several investment banks, including Svenska Handelsbanken, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Willams de Broe. ?[Linqvist] brings many diverse and valuable skills to CP Eaton which will strengthen our firm’s presence in the European market, said Anne Gales, head of CP Eaton’s London office, in a statement. ?His background in structured equity financing, along with his practical and hands-on knowledge of the industry, will be particularly useful as we continue to work to meet the demands of our clients.? CP Eaton is currently raising two Asia-focused funds and eight US funds with strategies ranging from real estate, core capital assets, distressed corporate debt, clean energy and distressed and high-yield commercial mortgage-backed securities.

FBR Capital Markets promotes trio
FBR Capital Markets Corporation (Nasdaq: FBCM), based in Arlington, VA, has announced the promotion of three executives to the position of senior managing directors: Christopher Shebby, a managing director in its energy investment banking group, Charlie Thompson, a managing director in its M&A Group, and Peter van der Meer, a managing director in its insurance investment banking group. FBCM is a majority-owned subsidiary of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., and provides investment banking, merger and acquisition advisory services, institutional brokerage, research, asset management and private wealth services. Before joining FBR in 2000, Shebby was a principal with The Energy Recovery Fund, a private equity fund focused on investments in the upstream oil and gas sector. Thompson joined FBR Capital Markets in 2007 as a managing director through FBCM’s acquisition of Legacy Partners Group, a middle market M&A advisory services firm. Before joining FBR Capital Markets in 2001, van der Meer was the CEO and co-founder of ExClaim Technologies LLC.

Greenhill hires Morgan Stanley MD to open San Francisco office
Investment bank Greenhill & Co. has hired Andrew Woeber as a managing director. Woeber was most recently a managing director at Morgan Stanley, based in San Francisco. He will be charged with opening a San Francisco office for Greenhill, which currently has offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, Toronto and Dallas. Woeber has been at Morgan Stanley since 2000, before which he worked in mergers and acquisitions at Merrill Lynch. Prior to that he was an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. ?Andrew is an outstanding investment banker with experience across a wide range of industries,? Greenhill chairman Robert Greenhill said in a statement. ?He is well positioned to help us open our first office on the West Coast, where we already have many client relationships.? Greenhill provides financial advisory services for mergers, acquisitions and restructurings, and also manages merchant banking funds.

HSBC lures Citco Amsterdam exec to Singapore
HSBC has hired a former Citco executive, Wout Kalis, to head the Singapore operations of its alternative fund services, which provides fund administration and custody services to the alternative sector. Kalis will relocate from Citco’s Amsterdam office, where he was a senior relationship manager. At Citco, a global financial services firm, he was credited for his involvement in the set up of a client relationship team across different divisions within Citco. He replaces Allard DeJong, who recently left the firm to join one of its fund of hedge funds clients. In his new role, Kalis He will oversee all aspects of the business in the Singapore office, which will include client services, portfolio valuation, client relationship management, business development and implementation of the business’ global strategy. Wout reports to Arjun Bambawale, chief executive of HSBC Institutional Trust Services, Singapore, and functionally to Lilian Wong, head of alternative fund services, Asia-Pacific, who is based in Hong Kong.

Jeffries strengthens PE product offerings
New York investment firm Jeffries & Company has launched a dedicated structured equity group in order to enhance its product offerings in the private equity and alternative asset categories. The group will initially focus on originating and executing equity private placements for private and public companies, as well as public equity offerings for special purpose acquisition vehicles. The team will be led by managing director Charles Mather, who joined the firm last year. Mather was previously head of the private equity group of Cowen & Company. The team also includes snior vice president Abi Subramanian and vice president Mark Weissman. Weissman joined Jeffries in 2001, and Subramanian came to the firm last year after working in equity private placements at Stanford Group and Cowen & Company. ?I am excited to build this initiative as part of the Firm’s broader equities effort,? Mather said. ?Structured equity and SPACs are attractive investment options for institutional investors and complement the firm’s comprehensive range of products and services.?

Noble nabs RBS pro for new CIO
The UK investment bank Noble Fund Managers (Noble) has announced the appointment of Bruce McLaren, formally managing director of The Royal Bank of Scotland Equity Finance team to the position of CIO. Prior to his appointment, McLaren spent 14 years working with The Royal Bank of Scotland. He was a founder member of the RBS leveraged debt team in 1993, building the team to become a market leader during his tenure. He later went on to co-found RBS Mezzanine Ltd. In 2000, McLaren founded and headed up RBS Debt Ventures, which merged with RBS Equity Finance in 2004, when he became Managing Director of RBS Equity Finance and a member of RBS Corporate Markets Credit Committee. In announcing the appointment, Noble touted McLaren’s 17 years’ experience in unquoted M&A covering both debt underwriting and equity investment across the small, mid market and European mega buyout deal spectrum. In this new position, he will oversee the appraisal of all investments made by Noble, including the company’s four Venture Capital Trusts, EIS and IHT portfolio services, its £45m venture finance fund and range of property investment vehicles.

CMF adds two to PE team
Financial consulting firm CMF Associates has hired seven new team members in response to a rise in its business volume in 2007. Two of the new team members will work in the firm’s private equity practice, which primarily helps funds with buy side add-on acquisitions. Richard Bronstein joins CMF from UBS, where he was a client account manager supporting the institutional equities and convertible bonds trading relationship for UBS’ core institutional clients. Brian Dwyer was most recently at Morgan Stanley, where he was a client service representative in the firm’s institutional securities division. Before, Dwyer worked in the tax department and business implementation and support group of SEI Investments. Dwyer and Bronstein join CMF as analysts, helping to drive acquisitions searches by identifying entrepreneurs and family businesses seeking a financial exit through one of the middle market funds in the CMF networks.

ALPS, Red Rocks launch listed-PE ETF
ALPS Fund Services and investment advisor Red Rocks Capital have launched a new exchange-traded fund that invests in the common stock of publicly traded private equity firms. The fund is composed of stocks in 30 to 50 domestic and international private equity firms, and its portfolio will have an average market capitalization of around $3 billion (€2 billion), the firms said. The private equity ETF, ?Listed Private Equity Fund?, will track an index created and managed by Denver-based Red Rocks, ?Listed Private Equity Index?. It is the second ETF to track the Red Rocks index; in November 2006 PowerShares Capital Management launched a similar fund. The new fund has been specifically designed for institutions, financial advisors, family offices and individual investors through 401(k) programmes, the firms said. The fund began operations on December 31st.