JPMorgan hires new co-head for healthcare in EMEA

[January 31, 2014]  By Anjuli Davies

LONDON (Reuters) — JPMorgan Chase & Co has hired private equity industry veteran Cathrin Petty to co-head its healthcare group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), anticipating a pick up in activity in the sector.

Petty, who joins from British private equity firm Vitruvian Partners where she was a partner, will work alongside current head Rakesh Patel when she starts next week, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo.

"Our EMEA investment banking healthcare team has become increasingly active over the last year with a number of major transactions," Vis Raghavan, head of EMEA banking at JPMorgan said in the memo."

"To build on this momentum, I am pleased to announce that Cathrin Petty has joined the firm."

Globally deals in the healthcare sector totaled $203 billion dollars in 2013, a five percent decline on a year earlier. In Europe, deals worth $40.9 billion were announced, a 30 percent rise on the year earlier, data from Thomson Reuters showed.

JPMorgan worked on some of the biggest healthcare deals last year. It advised Bausch & Lomb alongside Goldman Sachs on its $8.7 billion sale to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Thermo Fisher alongside Barclays on its $13.6 billion acquisition of Life Technologies.

Prior to Vitruvian Partners, Petty spent 10 years at private equity firm Apax Partners, eight of which were spent in the global healthcare team. She also worked at Schroders and interned at JPMorgan in 1994.

(Reporting by Anjuli Davies; editing by Jane Merriman)

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