UBS banker joins CVC

CVC Capital Partners has appointed Lorne Somerville as its head of telecoms investment. He was formerly joint global head of telecoms and the head of the European communications group at UBS.

Somerville will become a partner based in CVC’s London office and will lead CVC’s telecoms, media and technology team globally.

Somerville worked at UBS for seven years where he led the investment banking telecoms team responsible for coverage of telecommunications and media companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Before joining UBS, Somerville worked at Swisscom, the Swiss telecoms company, as head of its international arm. He has held several board positions including at Cesky Telecom, the Czech telecoms company, and Unisource, the printing products company.

Others who have recently left the Swiss bank to join private equity include John Sinik who left his position as head of global leveraged finance to join Towerbrook, the transatlantic private equity firm, while Richard Allsopp left its placement business to join Babcock and Brown, the Australian investment firm.

Further departures to private equity from the banking community include John Coyle, former head of financial sponsor coverage at JPMorgan, joining Permira, and Chris Coles, the former head of leveraged finance at Barclays Capital, moving to Actis, the emerging markets manager.