"Everyone who was a leveraged finance banker and has lost their job is now calling themselves a debt adviser," mused a cynic in the leveraged finance market last month. But given the number of ex-bankers now joining existing advisers or setting up on their own there is a grain of truth in the comment.
The growing number of agency brokers now establishing themselves (see Boutiques: Independents’ day, Euromoney April 2009) are being joined by independent debt advisory firms specifically targeting the anticipated wave of turnaround and restructuring business that will come from the corporate debt binge of recent years.
Start-ups
Recent debt advisory start-ups in Europe include Versatus (ex-Nomura team), Essentia Advisors (ex-ING), Novum Capital (ex-ICG, Lazard, Goldman, Fortress), One Square Advisors (ex-Booz Allen), Ondra (ex-Lehman, Centaurus), Amias, Berman & Co (ex-Citi) and JRJ (ex-Lehman). In the US ex-Citi pair Mickey Brennan and Jon Calder have recently set up independent North Sea Advisors.
| "You need to know where the new sources of money are. There is increasingly a big value shift away from the banks to new money that can unlock a situation" Robin Menzel, Augusta & Co |
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"Debt advisory business will migrate to the independents and stay there," predicts Robin Menzel, partner at Augusta & Co, an independent merchant bank that was established in 2002.
