Spire Capital Advisors LLC, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm with offices in Milwaukee, Madison and Wausau, is rebranding itself as Pentvia Partners LLC.
The new brand more effectively reflects the company’s service offerings in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, equity and debt, said Chris Zuzick, managing partner with the firm.
“When we started, the intent was to put together a company to provide small to medium sized businesses with value-added investment banking services in those five categories,” he said. “This is not us all of a sudden changing our focus or position.”
Earlier this year, the firm hired Kristine Iwinski as a vice president. Iwinski has an extensive background in commercial lending, and has helped Pentvia offer its clients more services in the debt market, said Todd Manderfield, the firm’s executive vice president. The firm’s current book of business is split evenly between selling businesses and raising capital for clients, he said.
“We’ve found a good niche and now we want to drive this brand and be the go-to firm in town,” Manderfield said.
Pentvia Partners is also pursuing a broker/dealer relationship with Cape Securities Inc., in preparation of new regulations that may be imposed on the investment banking industry.
“We wanted to stay ahead of the curve,” Zuzick said.
Despite the sluggish economy and drastically lowered levels of M&A activity around the country, the newly renamed firm is seeing plenty of activity in the lower middle market. Pentvia targets companies that will sell for between $2 million and $20 million. The company now has six clients engaged and expects to add several more in the next few weeks.
“We hope to close two deals in the fourth quarter,” Zuzick said. “We’re fortunate to have had the deal flow we’ve had. Every day we’re away from the fourth quarter of last year is a better day, and we’re well positioned to add value to the marketplace.”
For more information, visit pentvia.com.
