Investment bank SVB Leerink to open in Nashville – Nashville Business Journal
An investment bank with ties to a major Silicon Valley lender has set its sights on Music City.
Boston-based SVB Leerink, which specializes in health care and life sciences, has opened an office in Burton Hills, said Barry Blake, the firm’s global co-head of health care investment banking, who will be leading the new office.
SVB Leerink chose Nashville for its fifth location to accommodate its growing health care services and health tech investment banking services, Blake said. In addition to Boston, the firm has offices in New York City, San Francisco and Charlotte.
Nashville’s $92 billion health care industry is rich in health care providers, such as HCA Healthcare Inc. and Community Health Systems Inc., and has an ever-growing health tech scene.
That, combined with SVB Leerink’s increased focus in those fields, made Nashville the logical choice for expansion, Blake said.
“The firm’s made a massive investment into health care services and technology,” Blake said. “Nashville is the epicenter of health care providers and services. We feel that we need to be there to highlight the importance of the community to what we do. Most importantly, to enable us to more responsibly and nimbly cover those clients.”
Nashville’s financial services landscape has exploded in recent years, beginning with the announcement that New York investment management firm AllianceBernstein would move its headquarters to downtown Nashville. Big-city private equity firms have also found Nashville attractive, with then New York City-based Starr Investment Holdings LLC, Chicago-based Shore Capital Partners and Atlanta-based MSouth Equity Partners all opening offices or moving their headquarters to the city in recent months. In February, investment banking group Greenwich Capital Group LLC set up shop in Nashville.
SVB Leerink was formed in 2018 when Silicon Valley Bank, which Blake said is the “dominant” venture lender in the world, purchased Leerink Holdings for $280 million. The firm traditionally focused on the life sciences industry, Blake said, but last year began putting more emphasis on health care services and health tech because of a wave of growth in the industries on the horizon.
“There’s a lot of innovation coming, and it’s already happening in the services side of health care,” Blake said. “This firm is rooted in serving sectors that are experiencing innovation. that was the bet and we are already seeing it.”
SVB Leerink provides a number of investment banking services, including merger and acquisition advisory, equity research and capital advisory, among others.
The firm’s Nashville office currently has one employee, equity research managing director Whit Mayo, who joined the firm in June after more than three years at UBS.
Blake said SVB Leerink expects to hire more people, including investment bankers, in Nashville in the coming months but did not provide a specific number.
Overall, he said the firm has been growing rapidly in 2021, adding 165 employees this year.
“Overtime we want to become integrated into the Nashville community,” Bake said. “Overtime [Nashville] will be a standalone office. That’s the goal.”
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