Evercore Partners, a US-based investment banking advisory firm, has launched its institutional equities business having received required regulatory approvals and completed the build-out of its sales, trading and operational infrastructure.

The business will initially focus on establishing relationships with institutional investors addressing the financial institutions and technology, media and telecommunications industries and on supporting Evercore’s capital markets business. Research coverage of targeted companies is expected to launch in the second half of the year.

The business will be majority owned by Evercore and minority owned by founding and strategic partners.

Charles Myers, head of Evercore Institutional Equities, said: “Our team is comprised of highly experienced professionals with deep client relationships and sterling reputations. We have received positive feedback from our institutional client base, and we are excited to begin to deliver value to those clients.”

Ralph Schlosstein, president and CEO of Evercore, said: “We are very pleased with the progress that we are making in our institutional equities business, particularly with the high quality partners who have joined Evercore, and the momentum that we are starting to build with prospective clients.

“The institutional equities business is an important part of our overall strategy of building businesses that serve our corporate, financial sponsor and institutional investor clients on the basis of our ideas, our intellectual capital and our relationships.”