The Spanish private equity fund hiring 25 year-old bankers

Now that London and New York are off-limits for metropolitan liberal types, there's always Madrid. Spain's capital city, high on the Meseta - or Spanish plateau - has the advantage of beautiful architecture, climactic congeniality and a recently elected - if not entirely stable - government. There are also private equity funds there which are hiring.

As we reported last month, ex-Goldman Sachs executive director José Antonio Urquizu Echeverría is setting up 'Everwood', a private equity fund focused on renewables in the Spanish capital. He's not hiring yet, but his pre-Goldman employer, Portobello Capital, is.

Founded in 1990, Portobello has two funds with around €460m of investments. One of the four partners previously worked for Morgan Stanley. Six of eight members of the investment team previously worked in investment banks in London or New York.

Portobello is tiny and clearly can't accommodate all the Spanish bankers who might want to return home, but it has hired a couple of them. Joaquín Ariza just joined from Goldman Sachs. In August, Fernando Cassinello Bachiller joined from Citi. 

Ariza was previously an associate with Goldman in Madrid, but moved back to Spain with the bank in August after two years in London. Cassinello Bachiller was previously an IBD analyst with Citi in Madrid, but moved there after seven months with Citi in NY.

As we noted last month, there's a distinct trend for junior European bankers who leave London to go for private equity roles in their home countries. The good news is that these funds exist. The bad news is that - as with Portobello - they're tiny.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com