London-based Vestra Wealth said that David Karat has joined the firm as a partner, bringing with him Intermezzo Capital, the business which he founded to focus on the strategic financing requirements of private equity professionals and entrepreneurs.

Prior to founding Intermezzo Capital in 2006, Mr Karat’s career included having been a banking lawyer at Slaughter & May, head of the financial institutions group at Merrill Lynch, head of capital markets at Salomon Brothers, financial institutions managing director at BZW/ Barclays Capital and a senior partner at Deloitte responsible for financial institutions.

In his new role, Mr Karat will continue to oversee all aspects of the Intermezzo Capital business while also referring clients to the other services offered by Vestra Wealth. On its part, Intermezzo Capital will provide teams and individual professionals who will focus on the strategic financing requirements of private equity professionals and other entrepreneurs who wish to create wealth through investing in their own businesses.

“We believe that assisting entrepreneurs in their financing requirements to provide wealth creation opportunities is a key ingredient in providing a full holistic wealth management service. David brings a unique expertise to entrepreneurial financing that further differentiates Vestra in the independent advice sector,” said David Scott, managing partner at Vestra.

In other recent developments, in May Vestra Wealth hired Heather Tibbo and Jeremy Proffitt from Newton Investment Management, where they were responsible for private client business development. Joining as partners, they will target the professional intermediaries market.