Investors

Banker who advised GIP in startup

Justin Symonds has launched Hillcrest Partners. He headed transportation infrastructure advisory for RBS until earlier this year.

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A banker who advised Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in its 2012 deal for Edinburgh Airport and 2009 acquisition of Gatwick Airport has gone into business for himself.
 
Justin Symonds has founded Hillbrook Partners, a London advisory specialising in transportation infrastructure. Symonds counseled GIP while heading transport infrastructure advisory in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
 
In April 2012, GIP paid £807 million (€952 million; $1.25 billion) for Edinburgh, acquiring the airport from BAA. The infrastructure fund operator bought London's Gatwick Airport from BAA in 2009 for £1.5 billion.
 
Symonds is the latest defector from RBS, which announced its exit from investment banking in 2012. He had been rumoured to be joining investment banker John McIntyre, after McIntyre left RBS to start his own boutique advisory firm.
 
Joining Symonds is Charles Roast, himself a former RBS banker. Roast is a partner for Hillbrook.
 
RBS is 82 percent owned by UK taxpayers and also received a US federal government bailout in 2008 amid the global financial crisis. Â