Investment bank Greenhill & Co. has signed an agreement to acquire Cogent Partners, a financial advisor to pension funds, endowments and other institutional investors on the secondary market for alternative assets, for total consideration of up to $98 million with 30% payable in the future upon achieving certain revenue targets. Following completion of the transaction, all secondary advisory activities will operate under the name Greenhill Cogent.
Cogent advises institutions on sales of investments in private equity funds and provides restructuring, financing, and valuation services. Cogent had revenues of approximately $46 million in 2014. The acquisition of Cogent advances Greenhill’s stated strategy to create a global financial advisory firm that can advise clients on mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financing and capital raising across industry sectors and in all regions.
“We have long been committed to growing our business by attracting senior investment banking talent that expands our geographic reach, industry sector coverage and range of advisory services. We have consistently said that most of our recruiting would be of talented individual bankers or small teams, but that we would consider an acquisition where it would bring us significant capabilities that we could not replicate with individual recruiting,” said Robert Greenhill, Chairman of Greenhill. “The acquisition of Cogent is an opportunity to become a market leader in a distinct and important segment of advice that we believe has significant growth potential, to further diversify our sources of revenue, and to deepen our relationships with a broad range of important institutions globally.”
Cogent has its headquarters in Dallas, with additional locations in London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore (www.cogent-partners.com). All eight of Cogent’s Managing Directors will become Greenhill Managing Directors, and 30 additional employees will join Greenhill at closing.
Greenhill & Co. is an investment bank focused on providing financial advice on mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and capital raising to corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments. The firm has offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, São Paulo, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Melbourne and San Francisco (www.greenhill.com).
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 2-11-15