Sagent Advisors Buys IB team of Montgomery Marshall Healthcare

Sagent Advisors said Wednesday that it has bought investment banking team of Montgomery Marshall Healthcare Partners. George Montgomery and Keith Marshall, Ph.D., are joining as managing directors in Sagent’s San Francisco office.

PRESS RELEASE

Sagent Advisors Inc. announced today that it has acquired the investment banking team of Montgomery Marshall Healthcare Partners.  The addition of the healthcare advisory practice, led by George Montgomery and Keith Marshall, Ph.D., contributes significantly to Sagent’s rapidly expanding healthcare team.  Mr. Montgomery and Dr. Marshall join Sagent as Managing Directors in the firm’s San Francisco office.

Mr. Montgomery has over 25 years experience in investment banking and has worked across all sectors of the healthcare industry, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare services and medical devices. Dr. Marshall has been involved in the healthcare sector for over 20 years, both in investment banking – focusing on biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies – and in medical research.  Their team has also built extensive relationships with leading healthcare companies in Japan and has completed over $3.5 billion of cross-border M&A and partnering transactions with Japanese pharmaceutical companies since 2006.

“We are thrilled to have this exceptional team join Sagent at such an exciting time of growth for the firm,” said Hal Ritch, Chief Executive Officer of Sagent Advisors. “The addition of George and Keith, along with their team, broadens our expertise in the dynamic healthcare sector, adds depth to our San Francisco office and continues our momentum of expanding our advisory practice across industries and geographies.  Adding experienced and trusted advisors to Sagent is a key element in the development of our business as more and more corporate and private equity clients tap independent investment banks for unbiased advice on their strategic financial transactions.”

The new executives join a number of senior banker hires over the past few months at Sagent, including Ron Pillar in the Communications Technology sector, Shruthi Kinkead in Healthcare Services and Omar Namoos in Aerospace.  Over the past six months, the firm has completed a number of advisory mandates, including advising Stanley Inc. on its sale to GCI Group, which was recently recognized as “Best Overall Deal of 2010” by Washington Technology magazine; Wavestream Corp. in its sale to Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.; Veritas Capital on its acquisition of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Enterprise Integration Group; and the ad hoc group of Visteon Corporation’s noteholders on the company’s $2.7 billion Chapter 11 restructuring and $1.25 billion equity rights offering.

Mr. Montgomery was most recently a Managing Director at Montgomery Marshall Healthcare Partners, LLC., a firm he co-founded with Dr. Marshall.  Prior to that, he was at Montgomery & Co., LLC where he led the firm’s healthcare effort and opened their San Francisco office. During his tenure there, he also served on the Board of Directors and was a member of the executive committee.  Before that, he was a Managing Director at JP Morgan H&Q where he led the firm’s healthcare efforts on the West Coast. He has also been a Managing Director at SG Cowen and started his career at First Boston in 1983. George received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BA from Yale College.

Before co-founding Montgomery Marshall, Dr. Marshall was a Managing Director at Montgomery & Co. where he helped found the firm’s healthcare team in San Francisco with Mr. Montgomery. Prior to that, he was at JP Morgan H&Q where he focused on biotechnology companies. Before entering investment banking, Dr. Marshall performed medical research at Immulogic Pharmaceuticals and in academia. He received his AB from Washington University, his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from University of California, San Francisco.

Also joining Sagent from Montgomery Marshall are Lana Smith and Patrick Purdy.  Ms. Smith has previously been at Montgomery & Co. and in the healthcare investment group at Thomas Weisel Partners.  She received her AB in Government from Dartmouth College.  Prior to joining Montgomery Marshall, Mr. Purdy had been with Euro RSCG Life, a healthcare advertising agency.  He received a BS in Biology from Yale College.

ABOUT SAGENT ADVISORS INC.

Sagent Advisors is an independent, privately-owned investment bank that provides financial advisory and capital raising solutions to clients in connection with mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and other strategic financial transactions. With over 70 investment bankers, the firm provides broad industry and product sector expertise to its clients through its offices in the U.S. in New York, Charlotte, Chicago and San Francisco, and globally through its alliance with Daiwa Securities Capital Markets in Asia and DC Advisory Partners in Europe.  Sagent Advisors offers a unique combination of powerful global relationship networks, strong industry and execution expertise, and senior attention on every client transaction.