People moves

3i, has announced that Stephan Kruemmer, Group Partner and Managing Director of the German-speaking business, has decided to leave 3i for personal reasons with effective from 30 April 2009. Kruemmer joined 3i in 2005 under his leadership, the German business made investments such as Scandlines and Norma Group and advised 3i Infrastructure on its investment in Oiltanking, the largest of 3i Infrastructure’s transactions outside the UK. The team’s track record of realisations in the past four years includes SR Technics, Betapharm and Wendt. Ulf von Haacke and Peter Wirtz will jointly succeed Stephan as Managing Directors of 3i Germany.

The Blackstone Group has announced the addition of Jean-Manuel Richier as senior managing director to its Paris office to work alongside Jean-Michel Steg to grow and develop the Blackstone Advisory business in France and in Europe. John Studzinski, Global Head of Blackstone’s Corporate Advisory Group, commented on the announcement: “The appointment of a second French local advisory practitioner is another step in the increasing development of our global team. It also highlights the wider maturity and importance of the global advisory market”. Richier has 18 years of investment banking experience in France. He was recently a managing director and Deputy Head of Investment Banking for France at Citigroup. Prior to this, he was a managing director with Goldman Sachs and the Head of the Financing Group (Equity and Debt Capital Markets) for France and Belgium (1998-2005).

• Matthew Prest has swapped Close Brothers for Moelis & Co to lead the investment banking boutique’s move into European restructuring. Prest was previously Close’s head of European restructuring. He is joining the new team as managing director along with Charles Noel-Johnson, previously a director in Close’s European restructuring group, who will join as executive director. Both will be based in London and will start at Moelis & Co in July. Moelis & Co is an investment bank founded by Ken Moelis after he stepped down as president of UBS in 2007. To date it has operated mainly in the US. The European restructuring hires signal an intensification of its push into European advisory businesses and follows the recruitment of Mark Aedy as head of EMEA investment banking earlier this month. Aedy was previously head of corporate and investment banking for EMEA at Merrill Lynch. Close Brothers was unfased by Prest’s departure. A spokesperson said: “Our European restructuring and debt advisory team make up a large and highly experienced business.” The firm has more than 50 bankers working on restructuring mandates across its European offices. Recent deals include Entertainment Rights, Setanta and Sanitec. The team is led by Jonathan Trower, while CEO Stephen Aulsebrook will continue to have overall responsibility for European restructuring. Prest joined Close Brothers from M&G Investment Management, and had previously worked at KPMG.