Jeffrey Coates – a managing director at GE Equity, formerly GE Capital Equity Capital Group – and several other GE Equity executives have been hired away by Thomas H. Lee Co. and Putnam Investments to head up an Internet investment fund.
The fund will be the first of many proposed funds to be managed by TH Lee, Putnam Capital, a joint venture between the two firms to build a family of alternative investment products .
At GE Equity, Jeffrey Coates was the second-in-command, according to a source familiar with the situation, and led the division’s Internet-related deals, including investments in ValueVision Inc., Star Media Network Inc., Wink Communications, Launch Media and iXL Enterprises Inc.
Executives from Putnam have said the Internet fund will have a target of between $500 million and $1 billion. Coates will use the same investment strategy at TH Lee Putnam that he did at GE Equity, the source said – namely, minority investments in later-stage electronic commerce and related Internet companies.
The source declined to say what other GE Equity executives were being recruited but added that managers may also be hired from other firms. The source also said Coates and his team may head up additional funds for TH Lee Putnam in the future.
When the venture was announced, Scott Sperling, the president of TH Lee Putnam and a managing director, said Thomas H Lee Co.’s primary role would be to select management for the funds. Executives at GE Equity declined comment for this article.
Thomas H Lee Partners’ eponymous founder will act as chairman and CEO of TH Lee, Putnam Capital, and Thomas H Lee senior managing director David Harkingswill be president of the new venture alongside Scott Sperling.
Lawrence Lasser, senior managing director of Putnam, and chief of corporate development Steven Spiegel will sit on the board of TH Lee, Putnam Capital. Scott Maxwell has been appointed Putnam director responsible for managing the group’s involvement with the new venture.
Contrary to reports that he was heading to Internet specialist eVentures, former ONdigital chief executive Stephen Grabiner has joined Apax Partners as a director in the firm’s international media team. Grabiner said his ambition is to make Apax the first stop for media and internet entrepreneurs, both corporate and individual’.
Media is one of six key industry sectors for Apax. Commenting on Grabiner’s appointment, chairman Ronald Cohen said Apax’s continuing strategy will be to attract to our international team senior executives who are expert in their industries and can offer management support to the entrepreneurs we back’.
Credit Suisse First Boston is continuing to add to its leveraged finance and high-yield capital markets teams. Edward Gardner, formerly a managing director in the financial sponsors coverage group at Deutsche Bank Alex.Brown, will head the corresponding New York department of CSFB as managing director. Deutsche Alex.Brown vice-presidents Geoffrey Manna and Pedro Garcia have followed Gardner to the financial sponsors coverage group.
Steven Selzer, formerly a senior member of Goldman Sachs’ leveraged finance group, has moved to CSFB to become a managing director of the high-yield capital markets group.
Meanwhile, Didier Denat has moved from Deutsche Bank’s Paris office to join CSFB’s London leveraged and acquisition finance team as a director.
During the summer, Doughty Hanson made two further appointments to its US team, adding Harry Green, previously a member of the high-yield financing group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and Jacqueline Reses, who joined from Goldman Sachs’ M&A division. Kevin Luzak, ex-Salomon Smith Barney, was appointed earlier this year to head the group’s new US investment operation.
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, which is preparing to launch a $250 million private equity fund for Central Europe, has appointed Cheryl Halpern as a vice president in its US placement group. Halpern was previously a fund raiser at WestSphere Equity Investors.
EQT Partners has set up a team of four professionals at its Helsinki-based subsidiary, EQT Partners Oy to advise the new EQT Finland fund (see page 14). Partner and managing director Andreas Tallberg is supported by partner Juhani Mikola and associates Juha Lindfors and Panu Halonen.
The Finnish fund’s board of supervisory directors is chaired by Claes Dahlbck, vice-chairman of fund sponsor Investor AB. The other board members are Claus Mller of AEA, Stig Stendhal of Fiskar, Juha Toivola of Industrial Insurance Company, and Krister Ahlstrm.
Martineau Johnson corporate finance partner Roger Blears has been appointed to Foresight Technology Venture Capital Trust’s board. Blears, who is Foresight’s legal advisor and acted as sponsor for the VCT’s 1997 launch, specialises in advising growth companies in the IT and biotechnology sectors. Foresight is now almost fully invested, and its directors are seeking shareholders; consent for a public offer to raise up to GBP20 million, which would almost treble the size of the fund.
Gilde IT Fund this summer appointed three prominent information and communications technology figures to its advisory board.
Roel Pieper recently stepped down from his roles as executive vice-president and member of the management board at Philips Electronics. He was previously a senior vice president responsible for worldwide sales and marketing at Compaq.
John Sculley, currently a partner in e-commerce-focused family investment firm Sculley Brothers LLC, previously occupied senior positions at Pepsi-Cola and Apple Computer.
Boso Douque, now a consultant and investor in the high-tech sector, is the founder and former CEO of Uniface International and also serves as a member of the Dutch government’s advisory council for science and technology policy.
High-tech start-up specialist MTI Partners has appointed John Melotte as an investment manager. Melotte co-led the GBP200,000 buyout of Process Computing from United Biscuits, becoming managing director, and ten years later sold the company to Kewill Systems for GBP3.2 million. Following the acquisition, Melotte served as group technology development manager at Kewill Systems.
Angela Marron has been appointed as an associate of NatWest Development Capital’s Nottingham team, where she has been working on secondment from NatWest Corporate Banking Service since 1997. Previously, she spent a period on secondment to NatWest Equity Partners.
NatWest Equity Partners, meanwhile, has promoted two new investment directors.
Andy Marsh has worked with NWEP’s Manchester team for the past year and was actively involved in, among other transactions, the acquisitions of Datel Ferranti and NES Group.
Nicol Fraser, based in the group’s Glasgow office, joined NWEP in 1997 after a year’s secondment from the corporate recovery division of Scott Oswald. Most recently, Fraser was involved in the GBP36 million institutional buyout of the JDR Cable Group.
Top-twenty UK accountancy firm Saffery Champness has appointed Andrew Burchall as director of corporate finance. Burchall, previously a senior manager at PricewatehouseCoopers, will work alongside lead partner Peter Farrell – another recent appointment – as Saffery Champness seeks to build on its growing reputation in the corporate finance arena.
Dr Michael Paetsch, who will head West Private Capital GmbH, the Dusseldorf advisory company of West Private Equity, has an extensive business development and operations background in the telecoms technology and service sectors, combined with experience of building and expanding companies. During his time at o.tel.o, the Veba/RWE joint venture, Dr Paetsch was closely involved with the development of mobile communications companies E-plus Mobilfund and Bouygues Telecom.
West Private Equity’s two London-based principals both have long track records in private equity. Chief executive Philip Buscombe was a member of Investcorp’s management committee between 1989 and 1995, since which time he has been involved in numerous private venture capital investments and corporate turnarounds. Managing director and Jeremy Hand was a founding shareholder and director of Duke Street Capital, leaving the firm after ten years to co-found West Private Equity with Buscombe.
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