Evercore Partners Inc. announced that Steve Wellington has agreed to join the firm’s Investment Banking business as a senior managing director based in London, focusing on financial restructuring, distressed M&A and debt advisory.

Wellington has specialized in financial restructuring advisory and leveraged finance underwriting for the past 16 years. He worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch from 1999 to 2012, most recently as head of Restructuring Advisory EMEA where he advised a wide range of corporate clients and stakeholders on recapitalization strategies and distressed M&A. Prior to that he was co-head of European Leveraged Finance and was a senior member of the Financial Sponsors Group. Wellington will work closely with our industry coverage bankers, as well as the Restructuring team in New York, which is led by David Ying.

“We’re extremely pleased to welcome Steve to Evercore, as his hiring represents the first step in building a restructuring advisory capability in London. Evercore is a leading restructuring adviser in the U.S. and we have already established a presence in Europe having advised Greece-based Danaos Corporation on its comprehensive restructuring and we are currently advising Denmark-based Torm A/S and Kuwait-based Global Investment House. We believe there is a significant opportunity for us to develop a similar franchise in EMEA,” said Andrew Sibbald, CEO of Evercore’s European advisory business.

Ralph Schlosstein, Evercore’s president and CEO added, “Steve’s appointment demonstrates our continuing commitment to globalizing our advisory business and particularly our restructuring practice. His presence will expand and deepen our ability to serve restructuring clients in EMEA out of our London office.”

Evercore Partners is an independent investment banking advisory firm.