Lazard Ltd is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's largest independent investment bank, with principal executive offices in New York City, Paris and London.
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in May 2009.
Bruce Jay Wasserstein was an American investment banker, businessman, and writer. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spent a year at the University of Cambridge. He was prominent in the mergers and acquisitions industry, credited with working on 1,000 transactions with a total value of approximately $250 billion.
Wasserstein Perella & Co., sometimes referred to as "Wasserella", was a boutique investment bank established by Bruce Wasserstein, Joseph R. Perella, Bill Lambert, and Charles Ward in 1988, former bankers at First Boston Corp., until its eventual sale to Dresdner Bank in 2000 for some $1.4 billion in stock. The private equity business of the investment firm was not included in the sale and was to be sold off to existing Wasserstein shareholders.
Joseph R. Perella is an Italian-American financier.
Kleinwort Benson was a leading investment bank that offered a wide range of financial services from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. Two families, the Kleinworts and the Bensons, founded two very different merchant banks in London. They merged in 1961 to create Kleinwort Benson Lonsdale, later Kleinwort Benson. Following its acquisition by Société Générale in June 2016, it was merged with SG Hambros, already a subsidiary of Société Générale, to form Kleinwort Hambros in November 2016.
The First Boston Corporation was a New York-based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Credit Suisse in 1990. Together with its sister investment banks, it was referred to as CS First Boston after 1993 and part of Credit Suisse First Boston after 1996. The First Boston part of the name was phased out by 2006.
Perella Weinberg Partners L.P. is an independent, privately owned, global financial services firm focused on investment banking advisory services.
Stifel Financial Corp. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company created under its present name in July 1983 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 24, 1986. Its predecessor company was founded in 1890 as the Altheimer and Rawlings Investment Company and is headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.
Houlihan Lokey, Inc., is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Houlihan Lokey was founded in 1972 and is headquartered at Constellation Place in Century City, Los Angeles, California. The firm advises large public and closely held companies as well as institutions and governments. Its main service lines include mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, restructuring and distressed M&A, fairness opinions, and valuations. As of October 29, 2020, Houlihan Lokey employed more than 1,500 employees worldwide.
Volkert Doeksen is a private equity investor and founder of AlpInvest Partners, one of the largest private equity investments managers globally with over €40 billion of assets under management. Today, he serves as managing partner and Chief Executive Officer of AlpInvest Partners which has offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and New York.
Harris Williams is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company specializing in advisory services and financing's for middle-market companies. The firm provides a variety of advisory services including mergers & acquisitions, fairness opinions and restructuring advisory. Harris Williams operates as a subsidiary of PNC Financial Services.
Craig Schiffer was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Americas of Dresdner Kleinwort, based in New York, from 2003 to 2006. In February 2009, Schiffer founded Sevara Partners LLC, a boutique financial advisory firm based in New York City which serves clients in the United States and Europe.
A boutique investment bank is a investment bank that specializes in at least one aspect of investment banking, generally corporate finance, although some banks are retail in nature, such as Charles Schwab or Allen & Co. Of those involved in corporate finance, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring and reorganizations are their primary activities.
Lincoln International LLC is a multinational independent investment bank and financial services company specializing in advisory services and financings on middle-market transactions. The firm works with publicly traded and privately owned companies, financial sponsors, and lenders. The firm provides advisory services including mergers & acquisitions, capital advisory consisting of growth equity, debt and restructuring advisory, valuations and opinions and joint ventures & partnering. The firm completed more than 225 advisory assignments globally in 2019, as well as over 5,000 valuations.
Blair W. Effron is an American financier. Effron co-founded Centerview Partners, a leading global investment banking firm based in New York City. Centerview has offices in London, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Palo Alto and San Francisco. The firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructurings, valuation, and capital structure to companies, institutions and governments.
Centerview Partners is an American independent investment banking firm. Centerview operates primarily as an investment banking advisory firm. The firm offers mergers and acquisitions advisory, takeover defense, capital allocation, restructuring and divestitures services. Centerview has 60 partners and 300 professionals with expertise across a wide range of industries, geographies, transaction structures and sizes. Centerview is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious investment banking advisory firms.
PJ SOLOMON, often known as Solomon, is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York, NY. Solomon advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, recapitalizations, private placements, and corporate strategy. The firm also provides counsel to corporate boards, renders fairness opinions and has built a successful practice defending companies in proxy and take-over contests.
Robert B. McKeon was Chairman of New York-based Veritas Capital Management LLC, a private equity firm that he formed in 1992. He was also a founding partner of Wasserstein Perella & Co., where he served as the Chairman of Wasserstein Perella Management Partners.
An independent advisory firm is an investment bank that provides strategic and financial advice to clients primarily including corporations, financial sponsors, and governments. Revenues are typically generated by providing deal-specific advice related to mergers and acquisitions and financing. The WSJ noted in January 2016 that "boutique is a fuzzy label, defined as much by what these firms do as what they don’t do ."
