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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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]
