Honoring the legacy of Wm Sword & Co., a team of investors and former members of the firm have re-launched as Sword, Rowe & Company, a merchant bank focused on offering financial advisory services for private companies and alternative investment managers.
Wm Sword & Co. was founded in 1976 by William Sword, Sr., a senior partner at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Sword located his new firm in downtown Princeton, where he lived and studied, and brought with him many of the senior professionals that he had worked alongside during his tenure on Wall Street.
Six months after the firm’s launch, Mr. Sword was joined in the business by his son William (Bill) Sword, Jr., who worked at the firm for 37 years until his untimely passing in October 2012 from an accident that occurred during hurricane Sandy. From 2003 to 2012, Bill worked alongside and served as mentor to Daniel Rowe. Mr. Rowe took over management of the firm in late 2012, and is currently the CEO of Sword, Rowe & Company.
The investor group in Sword, Rowe includes Scott Sipprelle, founder and President of Princeton-based Westland Ventures; Christopher Kuenne, former Rosetta CEO; Jim Pallotta, Founder and Chairman of Raptor Group; and about a dozen other business leaders who are connected with the firm and the firm’s principals.
Daniel Rowe has recruited a number of other senior professionals to join him including Managing Directors Steve Plimpton, formerly of Equinox Fund Management, and Edward Bralower, formerly of Jefferies.
“Sword, Rowe will continue the relationship-driven, high-integrity banking model that was executed by both Bill Sword Sr. and Bill Sword Jr., but on an expanded platform with a larger footprint,” said Daniel Rowe, Managing Director and CEO of Sword, Rowe & Company. “There is a significant void in the financial services landscape as the larger institutions simply aren’t able to serve the needs of emerging companies and investment managers.”
Mergers and acquisitions and private market capital raising were core businesses of Wm Sword & Co. The re-launched firm will expand upon these areas, finding situation-appropriate capital for companies, investment funds, and other differentiated investment strategies. Investor relationships include private equity, credit and venture firms, family offices, strategics, hedge funds, and direct limited partnership investors.
Sword, Rowe will also provide fund raising services to investment managers and will provides advisory services on secondaries transactions, executing sell-side mandates on behalf of the owners of limited partnership interests.
Merchant banking activities of the new firm will include direct firm investments in private companies and allocations to alternative investment funds. The firm will also represent its investors and clients in the acquisition of or investment in private companies.
“We believe in the traditional merchant banking relationship, where the banker sits on the same side of the table as the client,” said Mr. Rowe. “It is critical for advisors to think and act as principals. Within a financial services landscape that is becoming more volume-driven and transactional, we can differentiate ourselves by our singular client focus and long term perspective.”
A New York Times business article recently addressed the need for more of a partnership approach in middle market banking and cited a trend towards the boutique model. Grant Thornton also recognized this trend in several recent white papers and noted that middle market businesses have been impacted by the credit crunch, the explosion of cross-border M&A activity, the proliferation of operational partners, the emergence of sovereign wealth funds, the middle market compensation squeeze, and the natural evolution of private equity.
Sword, Rowe & Company is headquartered in Princeton, NJ (www.swordrowe.com).
