Cogent Partners

Cogent Partners

Type	Private Ownership
Industry	Private Equity Secondaries
Founded	2002
Founder(s)	Colin McGrady, Scott Myers, Stephen Sloan, Ian Charles, and Brian Mooney
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas, United States
Products	Secondary Advisory, Research
Employees	40+ (2010)
Website	www.cogent-partners.com

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 3,000 limited partnership interests representing over $40 billion in private equity secondaries.^{[citation needed]}

Cogent Partners offers various private equity research products, including both fund and portfolio-level performance monitoring as well as due diligence services for new fund commitments. The firm publishes research bulletins for distribution to institutional investors.^{[citation needed]} Cogent also runs an alternative asset management business "CP Cogent Asset Management" which focuses in particular on investing into the timber asset class. Cogent raised and manages the Cambium Global Timberland Limited Fund, listed on the London Stock Exchange, which is run by Colin McGrady.^[3]

The firm has offices in Dallas, New York City, London, Shanghai and Tokyo and comprises a team of over 40 professionals.

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).^[4] Since then, the firm has added a variety of professionals from various investment banking and management consulting backgrounds.^{[citation needed]}

Regulations

CP COGENT SECURITIES LP is a broker-dealer licensed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and is a member of Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). COGENT PARTNERS EUROPE, LLP is a broker-dealer authorized and regulated by the U.K. Financial Services Authority. Additionally, Cogent Partners Europe, LLP is a member of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA), of the European Venture Capital Association (EVCA) and of the Association Française des Investisseurs en Capital (AFIC).

Competitors

Within the secondary advisory space, other advisors also include investments banks (Credit Suisse and UBS), electronic exchanges (NYPPE also a buyer of secondary interests through Allen Capital Partners), as well as established fund placement agents (Campbell Lutyens, Park Hill Group, Probitas Partners and Triago).

Within the Asset management Business, the firm competes with a number of established asset management firms such as Pictet & Cie and J. P. Morgan and specialist timber investors such as the Forestland Group and FourWinds Capital Management.

References

1. ^ Shopping Used Private Equity. Fortune magazine, August 2010
2. ^ Cogent Partners launches new secondaries intermediary and advisory service. AltAssets, May 2002
3. ^ http://www.cambiumfunds.com/
4. ^ Cawley, Rusty "Crossroads uses EDS portfolio to launch fund." Dallas Business Journal, September 24, 1999

• Pricing private equity secondary transactions, AltAssets, July 2002
• US secondary specialist opens in London. Financial News, April, 2004

External links

• Cogent Partners (company website)
• Cogent Partners (Business Week Profile)