A Citi M&A director left for a new energy boutique, where he's become a partner

M&A bankers in general are not having a good year and energy M&A bankers in particular are having a bad year. Maybe this is why Pavel Svistula, one of Citi's directors in energy M&A, has departed for a boutique.

Svistula has joined boutique firm AcAp Advisory. A director who spent nine and a half years in Citi's M&A business, Svistula joined AcAp as a partner - seemingly achieving a promotion along with the new job.

AcAp Advisory is a new firm. Filings with the UK's Companies House show that it was only incorporated in November 2015. The firm was founded by Andrea Arcangeli, a former senior director at Citi who covered utilities and infrastructure for the U.S. bank after working for Lehman. Despite setting up AcAP last year, the UK's FCA Register shows Arcangeli leaving Citi in 2016.

AcAP also employs Samuel Louis Van Holthe, formerly of Lehman and Nomura, as a senior advisor. Gian Andrea Fanella, a former start-up entrepreneur from Italy (with seemingly minimal M&A experience) joined as a partner focused on customer development and acquisition. And Jack Scriban, a former analyst at UBS and Citi, joined in a similar role.

Moral of the story: if you want to join this particular M&A boutique it helps to have worked with the founder. Then again, maybe that always applies in the boutiques sector.

Photo credit: Wind Turbines by Dorli Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0.