Hawkpoint Partners Limited (Hawkpoint) today announces the appointment of five experienced energy and power investment banking advisers reflecting its commitment to the development of new sectors to complement its existing broad sectoral capability.
The team will be led by Rupert Newall who joins as a managing director and was Head of the European Energy & Power Group at Bank of America. Prior to that Rupert was at Deutsche Bank, having started his corporate finance career at Robert Fleming. Companies which Rupert has advised include Aquavit on its £2.2 billion acquisition of Northumbrian Water, Oak Hill Capital Partners on its $420 million acquisition of Vertex, PetroChina on its $14 billion West-East Pipeline JV with Shell and Gazprom, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation on its $1.26 billion sale of KP North Sea Holdings, Enterprise Oil on its £1.6 billion bid for LASMO and Clyde Petroleum in defence of a £0.5 billion bid from Gulf Canada.
Andreas Zapf joins as a director, having been a member of the Energy & Power Group at Bank of America. Prior to that Andreas was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London and CSFB in New York. Transactions which Andreas has advised on include Nexens North Sea entry strategy and the cover bid for Innovene, BPs $9 billion petrochemicals and refining business.
Jean-Charles Bernard joins as an associate director. He was a member of the Energy & Power Group at Bank of America, having previously worked at Ernst & Young and Calyon. Recently Jean-Charles has advised Oak Hill Capital Partners on the $420 million acquisition of Vertex and United Utilities on the £91 million disposal of its telecoms service subsidiary.
Vicary Gibbs joins as an associate director. Prior to this he was part of the Energy & Power Group at Bank of America, having previously worked for the energy teams at Deutsche Bank and Robert Fleming. Transactions which Vicary has worked on include the $505 million privatisation of INA (the Croatian state oil company) and the corporate restructuring of Premier Oil.
Arindam Das joins as an associate. He spent four years at Baker Hughes prior to joining Bank of America.
Paul Baines, managing partner of Hawkpoint, said:
These appointments fill a key gap we had identified in our broad range of sector specialisations, particularly in oil and gas; and we are delighted that a team with so much relevant experience is joining Hawkpoint. This is a good time in the cycle for us to be investing in high calibre people.
Rupert Newall commented:
My colleagues and I are excited to be joining Hawkpoint given its track record, momentum and the calibre of our new colleagues. We are particularly impressed by their emphasis on providing top quality advice. We believe that Hawkpoint provides a fantastic platform for us to continue building our Energy & Power advisory business.
