Tuesday, November 24,  1:52 pm

Forward-looking intelligence allows you time to act. View this video on our restructuring content to see how you can benefit from our expertise.

Greenhill & Co. is exiting the merchant banking business and plans to focus entirely on client advisory. The firm agreed to sell the right to launch successor funds to its three merchant banking funds for $25 million to a concern formed by Robert Niehaus (pictured), chairman of Greenhill Capital Partners. Deal completion is expected before year's end. The purchase price is payable principally in Greenhill common stock, which will be retired.

After the transition of Niehaus and other employees to the purchasing concern, Niehaus will remain a senior adviser to the firm. Greenhill said it will retain its portfolio of principal investments, which had a fair market value of $178.5 million as of Sept. 30.

---

Cowen Group Inc. launched a financial institutions group. The team will be led by Simon Adamiyatt and David Levy as vice chairmen for investment banking and co-heads of FIG. Joining the group as managing directors are Matthew Epstein and Francis Greco.

Adamiyatt was most recently head of FIG at Bear, Stearns & Co. Earlier, he was co-head of FIG mergers and acquisitions at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and head of FIG in the Americas at UBS Warburg. Levy began his career at Salomon Brothers Inc. and spent 23 years at the firm. Over that span, Levy had been co-head of the financial institutions department at Salomon Brothers and led the bank and financial services group at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. In 2005, he joined Bear Stearns as a senior managing director.

Epstein was senior vice president of strategic partnerships at Fiserv Inc. Before that, he was head of financial technology banking at Merrill Lynch & Co. Greco spent 15 years covering financial institutions at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse Group, and will focus on depository and specialty finance companies.

---

Check The Deal Pipeline for updates on these Movers & shakers:

-- Waterstone Capital Advisors said Webster Hughes joined the firm as a managing director of its new consulting and investment banking business.

-- Affiliated Managers Group Inc. hired Joseph Germain as managing director of global distribution.

-- Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research said Kate Moore will join as a global equity strategist in November.

Look for these and more on today's Who's in, who's out!

Dig deeper, with Pipeline.

• 100,000 detailed person records
• 50,000 in-depth company records
• 10 years of news and analysis archives from the voice of The Deal Economy
  

Most searched keywords

• Idearc Inc.
• Skadden Arps
• Deutsche Bank
• Concho Resources
• Windstream Corp.
• Cantor Fitzgerald
• Pinnacle Foods
• Lazard
• Diedrich Coffee
• MBIA Inc.