The boutique investment bank Ardea Partners, founded by former Goldman Sachs bankers, expands its business in the UK with two high-profile new hires. This is the latest move by a company looking to capitalize on the recovery in the mergers and acquisitions sector.

Ardea Partners was founded in 2017 by Chris Cole and Don Truesdale and is among the independent financial advisory firms specializing in large acquisitions. Headquartered in New York, the company employs approximately 80 people. Now, Ardea Partners is expanding its London office and has brought on Sir Ian Cheshire as a Senior Advisor this month. Cheshire is currently the Chairman of Channel 4 and the real estate group Land Securities.

Sir Ian Cheshire will work with around 30 employees in the London office, including Simon Lyons, a former banker at PJT Partners and UBS, who is now co-head of Ardea's European business. Cheshire, who was also chairman of the department store chain Debenhams and CEO of the DIY group Kingfisher, said: "If the business develops as hoped, it makes sense to make further hires.

These new additions come at a time when more and more boutique banks are recruiting senior figures from the public and private sectors, including Sir Stephen Lovegrove at Lazard, the former National Security Advisor of the United Kingdom.

Boutique banks have gained significance in the United Kingdom, including Robey Warshaw, which hired JPMorgan’s financial institutions banker, Chetan Singh, this year as its second external partner alongside former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne.

Boutique banks earned nearly 40 percent of advisory fees for mergers and acquisitions in the first six months of the year, the third-highest share since London Stock Exchange Group's market observation began. This surpasses the combined 35 percent of so-called "Bulge Bracket" banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Among the Most Successful Boutique Banks Were Centerview Partners, Lazard, Evercore, and Rothschild, Which Together Earned $5.2 Billion in Fees in the First Half of the Year. Although This Figure Was Slightly Below the Previous Year, the Trend Shows That Boutique Banks Are Increasingly Competing With Their Larger Rivals in the Market.

Ardea Partners has participated in financial services transactions such as Generali's acquisition of Conning and Mubadala's acquisition of Fortress Investment Group. Ardea has also been active in other sectors, for example, advising Canadian mining company Teck when it received an unsolicited takeover bid from Glencore.

Among the other European co-leaders of Ardea is Julien Petit, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs. Other partners in London include Glenn Earle, Nigel Robinson, and James Del Favero.

Ardea Partners declined to comment on the new additions.