Ex-UBS banker founds cleantech boutique
A former co-head of investment banking at UBS, who spelt out an ambitious target of turning the Swiss bank into the top M&A house in Europe only to miss that goal, is launching what he claims to be the first advisory boutique dedicated solely to the clean technology sector.
Jeff McDermott has founded Greentech Capital Advisors, which launched yesterday and employs 13 staff at present.
McDermott left UBS in March 2007 after six years at the Swiss bank, in which time he ran investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, switching from New York to London to take up the role in 2004.
In that year he predicted UBS would top European M&A within three years but the bank missed this target and was ranked sixth in the league tables when McDermott departed.
After leaving UBS, McDermott co-founded distressed investor Stony Lane Partners but he told Financial News that “after exploring the possibility of launching of a distressed fund at the end of 2007, we decided not to proceed with that business”.
McDermott revealed that Greentech already has two clients and in a statement announcing its launch, the bank said that its “singular focus on the alternative energy space” was intended to fill “the need for a pure-play advisory firm dedicated to alternative energy and cleantech companies”.
A number of its staff have arrived in the last few weeks, according to McDermott, who is joined as a partner by five other former bankers at bulge bracket institutions.
Robert Schultz, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley Fund Services, will be chief operating officer. Timothy Vincent and Michael Molnar were previously with Goldman Sachs, Vincent as an infrastructure banker and Molnar as an alternative energy equity analyst.
Craig Wellen, previously a utility sector senior banker at Citigroup, will also be joining Greentech as a partner. Andrew de Pass, who founded Citigroup’s sustainable development investments group, will be a partner and will head Greentech’s private equity investing business.
McDermott said: “At most bulge bracket banks cleantech isn’t covered by one team of people. Different parts of the bank cover it separately. We want to be a cohesive team.”
He added that he expects private equity firms to be an important part of Greentech’s client base, as the majority of the cleantech companies in its proprietary database remain private. Greentech will be regionally focused on North America, at least for now.
--write to cgarcia@efinancialnews.com
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