NEW YORK, April 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sagent Advisors Inc. announced today that Matthew Epstein has joined the firm as a Managing Director.  Mr. Epstein, the former Head of Financial Technology at Cowen and Company, joins Sagent's expanding technology practice and will lead the firm's coverage of the financial technology sector.

"Matthew brings great expertise in the financial technology industry, an area that continues to grow in importance to our clients with the ongoing expansion of the technology sector," said Hal Ritch, Sagent Advisors' Chief Executive Officer.  "His addition to the team exemplifies our commitment to providing our clients with independent, unconflicted and trusted advice that management, boards and shareholders increasingly insist on when assessing mergers and acquisitions."  

Mr. Epstein has more than fifteen years experience working on a wide range of M&A and financing transactions, including Fiserv's $4.4 billion acquisition of CheckFree, Digital Insight's $1.4 billion sale to Intuit, and Providence Equity and The Carlyle Group's joint $1.3 billion acquisition of Open Solutions.  Before heading the financial technology group at Cowen, Mr. Epstein was Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Fiserv, Inc.  Prior to that, he headed the financial technology practice at Merrill Lynch.  He has also been part of the financial institutions group at UBS and the global mergers & acquisitions group at Lehman Brothers.  

"I am thrilled to be joining a firm led by investment bankers whose sole focus is on providing clients with sound and independent advice," added Mr. Epstein.  "The firm has an impressive group of dynamic bankers across all sectors.  I look forward to working with my new colleagues to contribute to our clients' further successes."

Mr. Epstein graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law and received his BA in History from Columbia University.  

ABOUT SAGENT ADVISORS INC.

Sagent Advisors is an independent, privately-owned investment bank that provides financial advisory and capital raising solutions to clients in connection with mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and other strategic financial transactions. With over 70 investment bankers, the firm provides broad industry and product sector expertise to its clients through its offices in the U.S. in New York, Charlotte, Chicago and San Francisco, and globally through its alliance with Daiwa Securities Capital Markets in Asia and DC Advisory Partners in Europe.  Sagent Advisors offers a unique combination of powerful global relationship networks, strong industry and execution expertise, and senior attention on every client transaction.

SOURCE Sagent Advisors Inc.