Houlihan Lokey acquired BearTooth Advisors, an independent advisory firm providing strategic advisory and placement agency services to alternative investment managers.
BearTooth was founded in 2014 by Bob Brown, Andy Lund, Jim McGee, and Riverstone Holdings and operates as a division of Riverstone Capital Services and Riverstone Europe. BearTooth’s Partners include Brown, Lund, McGee and Cristina Forcina Westermann, who collectively have more than 60 years of experience leading alternative investment management firms and traditional placement agents.
Following the closing of the transaction, the BearTooth team will form the Private Funds Group, a new service offering within Houlihan Lokey’s Corporate Finance business. The group will be jointly led by Brown, Lund and McGee and will comprise 17 personnel based in London and New York.
“The establishment of the Private Funds Group both underscores and takes advantage of two of Houlihan Lokey’s key strengths: a breadth and depth of financial sponsor relationships that is perhaps unmatched in financial services and our prescient recognition of the prevalence and increasing importance of alternative sources of capital,” said Scott Adelson, co-president and co-head of Corporate Finance.
