Cogent Partners
Cogent Partners is a boutique, private equity-focused investment bank and advisory firm and was one of the first advisory firms dedicated to transactions in the private equity secondary market (secondaries).[1] The firm, which was founded in 2002,[2] provides an array of sell-side advisory services such as secondary advisory, portfolio valuation and other research functions. Since inception, Cogent Partners has advised on over 5,639 limited partnership interests representing over $103 billion in private equity secondaries.
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Type | Private Ownership |
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Industry | Private Equity Secondaries |
Founded | 2002 |
Founder | Colin McGrady, Scott Myers, Stephen Sloan, Ian Charles, and Brian Mooney |
Headquarters | Dallas, Texas, United States |
Products | Secondary Advisory, Research |
Number of employees | 46+ (2014) |
Website | www.cogent-partners.com |
History
The firm was founded by former investment professionals from the Crossroads Group. Among its founders were Colin McGrady, Scott Myers, Stephen Sloan, Ian Charles, and Brian Mooney. Crossroads was a private equity investment manager investing primarily as a fund of funds. Within the secondary space, Crossroads was noted for its $340 million acquisition of a portfolio of direct investments in large- to mid-cap companies from Electronic Data Systems (EDS).[3] Since then, the firm has added a variety of professionals from various investment banking and management consulting backgrounds.
In April 2015, Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL) finalized the acquisition of Cogent Partners which is now part of the Capital Advisory division of Greenhill and trades under the name of "Greenhill Cogent".[4]
References
- Shopping Used Private Equity. Fortune magazine, August 2010
- Cogent Partners launches new secondaries intermediary and advisory service. AltAssets, May 2002
- Cawley, Rusty "Crossroads uses EDS portfolio to launch fund." Dallas Business Journal, September 24, 1999
- Greenhill Expands Capital Advisory Capabilities through Acquisition of Cogent Partners. Greenhill, Feb 10, 2015
- Pricing private equity secondary transactions, AltAssets, July 2002
- US secondary specialist opens in London. Financial News, April, 2004