Industry Frontline – August 2005

Alvarez & Marsal recruits Asian team
Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), the US-based turnaround and restructuring adviser, has launched Alvarez & Marsal Asia with an 80-strong team. The team has been recruited en masse from Hong Kong- and Singapore-based RSM Nelson Wheeler Corporate Advisory Services Limited (RSM). A spokesperson for A&M said RSM had been looking for an international partner in order to achieve its planned next stage of growth. The same source declined to disclose financial details of the deal. The ex-RSM team is headed by managing directors Cos Borrelli, Kelvin Flynn and Neill Poole. Established for more than ten years, the team has carried out advisory mandates in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. These included a $550 million debt-workout at Philippines industrial group Benpres and the turnaround and interim management of Forefront, the distributor for Swedish vehicle manufacturer Scania in Greater China.

Gibson Dunn appoints Palo Alto head
Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has appointed Russell Hansen as partner in charge of the firm’s Palo Alto, California office. Hansen replaces Denis Salmon, who led the office for four years. Salmon will continue to serve as cochair of the firm’s intellectual property group. Hansen comes to Palo Alto from Gibson, Dunn’s Century City (Los Angeles) office. ?Gibson Dunn has a terrific platform in Silicon Valley,? said Hansen in a statement. The firm has 32 attorneys in the Palo Alto office. Gibson Dunn has more than 800 lawyers across 13 offices in the US and Europe.

HSBC fund admin unit hires sales pro
HSBC Alternative Fund Services, the fund administration services provider, has appointed David Goldstein as director of sales in New York. HSBC spokeswoman Maria Claassen said Goldstein, who joins from Trident Trust in New York, would support the New York office in attracting clients. HSBC Alternative Fund Services was created following HSBC’s acquisition of bank of Bermuda Global Fund Services and provides fund administration and custody services to private equity funds, hedge funds, funds of funds, multi-manager funds and property funds.

Eichenlaub spearheads PE push at CIT
CIT Group, a New York-based provider of commercial and consumer finance solutions, has appointed Timothy Eichenlaub as senior managing director and head of Global Sponsor Finance where he will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with private equity firms. Global Sponsor Finance is a unit of CIT’s Investment Banking Services Group, recently formed to provide financing solutions and advisory services to the company’s mid-market client base. Eichenlaub joins from GE Commercial Finance, where he was a managing director in the merchant banking Group and Commercial and Industrial Finance business. In the Merchant Banking group, he was responsible for coverage of private equity groups in the southern and western US as well as syndications, mezzanine capital, equity co-investments and buyout fund investments. CIT Group, which was founded in 1908, has nearly $60 billion in assets under management. The firm, which has global headquarters in New York and corporate offices in Livingston, New Jersey, has approximately 6, 000 employees.

Hussain steps up at Dresdner Kleinwort
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the investment bank, has promoted Tariq Hussain, a managing director of UK mergers and acquisitions, to co-head European M&A as part of a reshuffle reportedly designed to chase more private equity business. The reshuffle sees Hussain step up to co-head European M&A alongside Florian Fautz, whose title changes to co-head of European execution. Henry Somerset, a vice chairman and former European co-head alongside Fautz, becomes head of UK M&A.

Lane Berry names Walsh for tech team
Boston-based investment banking boutique Lane, Berry & Company International has named Tim Walsh as a managing director in the firm’s New York office. Walsh will lead the firm’s technology banking group, focusing in particular on software, services, storage, Internet and hardware. Most recently, Walsh was global head of technology corporate finance at SG Cowen Securities. Before that he was head of the East Coast technology group for UBS and before that, an investment banker with Morgan Stanley’s technology group. Lane Berry, led by chairman and CEO Frederick Lane, has an additional office in Denver.

Rothschild New York gets vice chairman
Christopher Lawrence has joined Rotshchild in New York as vice chairman. Lawrence, 52, was most recently chief strategic officer of Credit Suisse Group and vice chairman of CSFB. He joined CSFB in 2000 as head of the global telecom investment banking division. Prior to that he was at Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup) in a variety of positions, according to a press release. Lawrence advised AT&T on its recent $22 billion sale to SBC, as well as on the sale of AT&T’s cable business to Comcast for $72 billion. Rothschild’s North American operation is led by CEO Gerald Rosenfeld. The firm is part of the worldwide Rothschild Group led by chairman Baron David de Rotshchild.

Campbell Lutyens wins French pension mandate
London-based private equity advisory firm Campbell Lutyens has been appointed by France’s €19. 3 billion ($23 billion) Fonds de Reserves pour les Retraites (Pension Reserve Fund) to help it select private equity managers for hundreds of millions of euros in new investments. The Fonds has selected specialist advisers for both buyout and socially responsible investment programmes ? with UK-based finance wining the socially responsible mandate. Mercer, which advised the organisation on bond and equity investments last year, is understood to have pitched unsuccessfully for the new business. Campbell Lutyens specializes in private equity advice and has 20 staff in offices in London and New York. French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel is acting as legal counsel for the manager-selection process.

Williams takes on risk at Integro
Integro USA, a recently formed insurance brokerage, has hired Robert Williams as head of worldwide client development as well as leader of the firm’s private equity risk management practice. Williams was most recently executive vice president and chief client officer of Aon Group, and brings 25 years’of risk management brokerage experience in major risks, including the formation of professional practices serving the analytical and transactional needs of M&A and private equity clients. Integro was formed by Robert Clements, the former chairman of Arch Capital Group. He recruited Roger Egan, the former COO of Marsh, as CEO, and Peter Garvey, the former president of Marsh, as president. Both Egan and Garvey worked for Clements when he was president of Marsh from 1992 to 1994. Integro USA has raised more than $300 million in private equity funding from organisations including GE Pension Trust, Leucadia National, DLJ Merchant Bank, Western Presidio and Highfields Capital.

Silverfern adds managing director
New York middle-market investment bank The Silver-fern Group has added Larry Nathanson as a managing director. He most recently was a managing director at Prism Clairfield, an investment bank. Nathanson will specialize in the food and beverage industry, as well as consumer products, packaging, automotive components and capital goods.

Hawkpoint lures Gluckstein from Citi
Hawkpoint Partners, the London-based independent advisory firm serving the corporate and private equity markets, has appointed Simon Gluckstein as managing director. Gluckstein joins the company from Citigroup, where he was a managing director specialising in media and general corporate finance advisory work. Deals he advised on at Citigroup included last year’s sale of the Odeon cinema chain to Terra Firma Capital Partners and the acquisition of Chelsea football club by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003.

LAW FIRM
Frankfurt launch for Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird, the London-based law firm specialising in technology, has launched a third German office in Frankfurt. Corporate finance specialist Erich Michel is moving from the firm’s existing Duesseldorf office to spearhead its push into Frankfurt. Michel joined Bird & Bird last October from the Frankfurt office of rival law firm Norton Rose. Joining Michel in the Frankfurt team are corporate associate Stefan Klein-Breuer, who moved with him from Norton Rose, and senior IP associate Susanne Koch, who has been recruited from Willkie & Gallagher. The firm plans to have a ten-strong team in place by October 1, with the aim of expanding to 20.

Bird & Bird launched its first German office in July 2002 in Duesseldorf with the appointment of eight partners from the local arm of Andersen Legal. It then opened in Munich in October 2003. ?Being in the financial centre of Germany will enable us to enlarge our sector focus, especially in our corporate/M&A practice as well as our private equity activities,? said Wolfgang von Meibom, head of Bird & Bird’s German operations. Meanwhile, Norton Rose has bolstered its Frankfurt office with the appointment of Nico Abel from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as a corporate finance partner. Abel, who focuses on private equity and M&A, will join Norton Rose in September, having been with Freshfields since 1999.

OUTSOURCED SERVICES
BISYS adds Vancura in New England
Financial administrative services firm BISYS has named John Vancura vice president of business development for its private equity services development. Vancura will be responsible for the New England area. He previously was managing director of the Northeastregion for Greenough Consulting Group, and outsourced provider of financial management services specializing in the alternative investment industry. Vancura began his career at Arthur Anderson in Boston, where he will now be based.? The Northeast region has tremendous growth opportunity, and John will play a very active role in identifying new opportunities as we build our reputation in New England for providing a comprehensive package of outsourced services to the private equity and venture capital industries,?said Steven Millner, managing director of BISYS Private Equity Services, in a statement. BISYSPrivate Equity provides advisory, administrative, accounting, and tax services. Itwas founded in 1986 as DML and in 1998 changed its focus to dedicated private equity outsourcing. The firm was acquired by The BISYS Group in 2002.

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Editors