BrazilGCA Altium adds trio of seniors to Industrial Technology practice
Hot on the heels of its best quarter in its history (80 transactions globally), GCA Altium has strengthened its team in Germany with the hire of a trio of seniors: Frank Merkel, Michaela Pfeifenberger and Jens Schmadel.
Frank Merkel has been appointed a member of the firm’s management board in Germany and Head of its Industrial Technology practice for Europe. Michaela Pfeifenberger and Jens Schmadel have been named directors, in charge of several offerings within the practice such as material handling technology, factory automation, and packaging & process technology.
All three bring years of extensive investment banking and corporate finance experience to GCA Altium, which formed in 2016 following the merger between GCA and Altium Capital. Today, GCA Altium has over 450 dealmakers working from 23 offices worldwide, including two in Germany: in Frankfurt and Munich.
Frank Merkel joins GCA Altium from Alantra, another mid-market M&A consultancy, where he worked for five years. During this period, he successfully completed more than 25 M&A transactions in excess of €4 billion enterprise value. Alongside working on deals, he held several internal leadership positions, including co-leader of the German office, Chairman of the Nordic operations and was a member of the Global Executive Management Committee of the Investment Banking business.
Prior to Alantra, Merkel was a founding partner of C.W. Downer & Co.’s business in the DACH and Nordic region, a global M&A boutique focused on cross-border M&A transactions, which merged with N+1 to become Alantra in 2016.
Michaela Pfeifenberger and Jens Schmadel also join from Alantra. The latter served the firm for eight years, and previously worked for banking groups Hauck & Aufhäuser and Sal. Oppenheim. Pfeifenberger kickstarted her career at Alantra, and spent fourteen years with the firm.
The new team will focus on expanding GCA Altium’s deals portfolio in the industrial technology sector, at a time when asset-intensive companies are investing heavily in automation and broader digital transformation roadmaps (also known as Industry 4.0).
According to a statement by the firm, industrial technology is a key sector for GCA Altium in North American and Asia, and the advisory firm is now looking to mirror that success in the DACH region.
Meanwhile, at Alantra, Oliver Parker recently joined the firm in the UK as a partner in its technology sector. He joined from Arma Partners, which in turn added Barry Jaber to its ranks, poached from Strategy&. Arma Partners last week also promoted Germany-based Fabian Zimmer to managing director.
