Greenhill to rebuild around GP-leds, chief executive says

Greenhill‘s secondaries advisory unit is to move away from the part of the market where it made its name, according to its chief executive.

Speaking on the investment bank’s third-quarter earnings call on Monday, Scott Bok said the capital advisory unit would do more complex “restructuring-type transactions” and fewer portfolio sales.

“They tend to be very tailored, very complex and, frankly, just like in the M&A and restructuring world, the more complicated the things are that you work on, it tends to be the higher fees that you end up earning,” he said.

The team, which has lost seven managing directors in the past month, will be rebuilt smaller with more junior members, he added.

“We lost people who contributed some portion of $2 million a quarter in pre-tax income, so certainly not the end of the world.”

Last week Secondaries Investor reported that Todd Miller, Andy Nick and Chris Bonfield were to join financial services firm Jefferies. Former Greenhill managing directors Brenlen Jinkens and Scott Beckelman were set to move there in September to launch a secondaries advisory unit, Secondaries Investor reported.

These departures were driven in part by the desire to work on more GP-led deals.

Dallas-based managing director Brian Mooney is understood to be leaving to join an undisclosed buy-side firm, following in the footsteps of Stephen Sloan, who joined Portfolio Advisors in September.

London-based Bernhard Engelien and Briac Houtteville will lead the Greenhill team.

Greenhill accrued quarterly revenues of $56 million, down 36 percent year-on-year, according to an earnings statement. An increase in revenues from its restructuring division were countered by “significant declines” in M&A and capital advisory.

Greenhill advised on $17 billion-worth of transactions last year including the landmark process with Japan’s Norinchukin Bank – the largest-ever secondaries sale.