Around this time last year, Antonio Polverino – the star banker given the last, big golden hello by Royal Bank of Scotland after it had been bailed out by the UK government – started his own firm, Apartners Capital. Now, Apartners Capital appears to be entering a second stage of expansion.
Or at least, it’s expanding in as far expansions in boutique firms go. In the past few months, quietly and under the radar, a number of former investment bankers have signed up to Polverino’s new venture.
Fulvio Molvetti, the former head of debt capital markets for Italy at Barclays, joined earlier this year, while Josh Silver, a special situations/distressed trader focused on emerging markets at Deutsche Bank, signed up in May and Pasquale Urselli, a managing director at Credit Agricole’s investment bank in Paris, was hired last year.
The firm launched with just two people in 2014 – Polverino and Stephen Gargiulo, a former managing director and head of CEEMEA sales for RBS’s investment bank.
Polverino was given a £7m ($11m) sign on bonus by RBS in 2009 to join as global head of financial institutions and strategic financing, shortly after the bank was handed a £37bn bailout by the UK government. He left in 2012 and later joined boutique corporate finance house Talbot Capital after a year out of the City.
APartners Capital was initially registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a hedge fund, but its website suggests that it offers a combination of private equity investment and corporate finance advice.