Houlihan ups private equity coverage

US investment bank Houlihan Lokey has stepped up its European private equity coverage with the appointment of Florus Plantegra as a director in the London office.

Plantegra was formerly a director of Egret Management, a leveraged loan subsidiary of Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking. Prior to that, he was a director of financial sponsor coverage.

Sovereign bolsters team

Sovereign Capital, the UK lower mid-market private equity firm, has hired Taha Hasan as an investment manager and Tom Matthews as an investment executive. The appointments bring buy-and-build specialist Sovereign’s team to 19 professionals.

Hasan was previously at Boston, Palo Alto and London-based investor Summit Partners and before that at Deloitte Consulting.

Matthews has joined Sovereign from the corporate finance team at Australian bank Macquarie, where he worked on healthcare acquisitions, a strong focus for Sovereign. Mathews was also previously at Deloitte.

CVC hires Zhu Wei

Zhu Wei has joined CVC to head up its newly opened Beijing office. Wei joins from Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities, where he was managing director of investment banking in its Shanghai office.

Wei joins Francis Leung, CVC’s other heavyweight hire in the region. Formerly chairman of Citigroup’s Asian investment banking division, Leung was appointed in 2007 to source and manage opportunities in China.

CVC already has a presence in Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.