Bank fees drive Evercore profit
EVERCORE Partners quarterly profit more than doubled as the boutique investment bank earned more fees from its investment banking business.
Evercore, founded as a merger and asset management firm in 1996 by former US deputy treasury secretary Roger Altman, has been aggressively hiring senior bankers as it looks to grab a bigger slice of the financial advisory business in a tough M&A market.
The New York-based bank said it hired six senior managing directors to its advisory business, and in January promoted three others internally.
The boutique investment bank’s net income rose to $35.3m (£22.3m) for the fourth quarter ended 31 December, from $14.1m a year earlier.
Net revenue doubled to $214m as investment banking revenue jumped twofold to $195m.
Chairman Roger Altman said Evercore had ended the year on a “strong note” in an environment when announced transactions on a global basis were essentially flat and completed transactions were down 15 per cent.
Rival Greenhill & Co reported last week a four per cent drop in advisory revenue for the year, far less than the 21 per cent drop reported by Morgan Stanley, signaling greater momentum for smaller shops even in weak merger markets.
Evercore’s shares, which have risen about 13 per cent this month, traded through $37 in New York yesterday – their highest level in almost two years – before closing at $35.60.