Financepts LLC Launched by Former Investment Bankers


PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 23, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Former investment bankers and principals, Charles F. Clement, Victoria J. Harris and Richard M. Levine, CFA, (biographies attached) announced today the launch of Financepts LLC, a company founded to help international financial institutions and professionals develop the skills necessary to capitalize on today's business opportunities. Financepts' mission is to "Bridge the Gap between Strategy and Performance" for financial professionals.

The Firm designs, develops and delivers finance seminars that interpret and define educational solutions to enhance the performance of bankers, from entry-level to experienced executives.

The three principals have more than 40 years of combined experience in investment banking and 15 years of creating and conducting finance seminars for the international banking community. As investment bankers, the principals were relationship managers and product specialists for a broad variety of corporate finance services and capital markets advisory and implementation programs.

Prior to founding Financepts, the principals designed and delivered seminars for top banks in Australia (2), Canada (2), France (3), Germany (6), the U.K. (2) and the U.S. (9).

According to Clement, all Financepts educational and development resources are client-tailored and based upon actual transactions and industry reports, real-world cases, applications and valuation techniques.

"Financepts programs provide materials that financial institutions need to sustain their competitive positions and professionals require to move ahead in their careers," Clement said. "In short, Financepts is dedicated to developing and broadening our clients' knowledge of financial solutions available today."

The Firm's offices are located at Princeton Center, Suite 200, 116 Village Boulevard, Princeton, N.J. 08540-5779.

Charles F. Clement 3rd DIRECTOR

With more than twenty years in the investment banking business, Clement provides a broad experience base in corporate financings and merger and acquisition transactions.

Prior to starting Financepts, he was a consultant for 11 years with the Globecon Group, serving bank clients by conducting workshops covering a wide range of corporate finance topics as well as more general relationship planning/marketing issues. Representative banks from around-the-world include: Australia-New Zealand Bank; Bank of America; Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank; BNP Paribas, BZW; Commerzbank; Credit Lyonnais; Deutsche Bank; Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein; Firstar Bank; First Union National Bank; Fleet BankBoston; Royal Bank of Canada; Salomon Oppenheim; Societe Generale; Summit Bank; The Royal Bank of Scotland; Union Bank of California; Wachovia Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation. Clement was responsible for managing the workshop business and the continuing development of the Firm's corporate finance expertise and related staff. He was also responsible for marketing the firm's services.

Previously, as a managing director with Prudential-Bache Capital Funding, Clement's responsibilities included business development and execution for domestic and multinational corporate clients primarily headquartered in the eastern United States. His transactional experience included domestic and international public offerings, private placements, mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations and general financial advisory assignments.

Prior to Prudential-Bache, Clement, as managing director, was both a product officer and head of new business development for Blyth Eastman Paine Webber's investment banking activities. His responsibilities included the packaging and presentation of corporate financing solutions for clients of other managing directors as well as directing the execution of the related transactions for his own client companies.

Clement holds a B.S.E. from Princeton University in mechanical and aerospace sciences and an M.B.A. in finance from Columbia University.

Victoria J. Harris DIRECTOR

Ms. Harris has more than ten years of experience in investment banking and corporate finance. Prior to joining Financepts, Harris was a Senior Consultant for five years at the Globecon Group, Ltd, an international financial training and consulting firm. Previously, Harris worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at Merrill Lynch in both its New York and London offices

At Globecon, Harris served clients by conducting seminars and workshops covering a wide range of corporate finance topics with an in-depth focus on balance sheet and ownership restructuring, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Among her other duties, Harris was responsible for mentoring new hires and obtaining and developing client relationships. Representative clients from around the world include: ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bear Stearns, Bayerische Hypo und Vereinsbank, BZW, Credit Lyonnais, Dresdner Bank, First Union, KeyCorp, PNC Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Societe Generale, Union Bank of California, UBS Warburg and Wachovia Bank.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities at Globecon, Harris authored several corporate finance research articles for her clients. Subjects included: Comparable Company Analysis; Mergers & Acquisitions; Generating Deal Ideas; Identifying Client Financial Strategies; M&A Pricing Structures; Benchmarking Clients; The Decision to Go Public; Asian M&A Opportunities; Real Estate Investment Trusts; Implications of Debt Alternatives and Private Equity.

While at Merrill Lynch, Harris advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, privatizations, defensive strategies and strategic alternatives. She was involved in transactions for companies in the telecommunications, health care, food, steel, apparel, restaurants and utility industries. Among her assignments, Harris completed the analysis for the valuation and fairness opinion materials for the GTE/Contel merger and helped Merrill complete one of the largest Hungarian privatizations to date - Novenyolajipari es Mososzergyargo Vallalat -- a vegetable oil and detergent company. Prior to working in the Merger & Acquisition department, Harris worked in the marketing research department in Merrill Lynch's corporate headquarters in Princeton, N.J.

Richard M. Levine, CFA DIRECTOR

Levine has more than fourteen years of financial services industry and teaching experience. He has worked with many clients in the development, marketing and implementation of Capital Markets products and solutions. In recent engagements, Levine designed and delivered workshops in Advanced Portfolio Management, Capital Markets and Derivative Products, Financial Modeling and Valuation and Financial Risk Management for a variety of international commercial and investment banks and advisors.

Prior to the founding of Financepts, Levine represented the Globecon Group for consulting and teaching assignments. Representative clients from around the world include Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank, Commerzbank, Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia Bank.

Levine joined Globecon after spending several years managing securitization and consulting engagements in Ernst & Young's Structured Finance group. His primary responsibilities were to provide advisory and analytical services to investors, issuers and underwriters of real estate and asset-backed securities.

Levine created and implemented cash flow models to value complex derivative securities for both portfolio and risk management purposes. In addition, he was a featured speaker in industry seminars on Mezzanine Financing and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) and co-authored a chapter published in the Trends in Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities handbook.

Levine previously worked for four years on Wall Street at PaineWebber and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he developed arbitrage transactions involving mortgage derivatives. He originated fixed income relative value strategies used by the mortgage-trading desk for risk management and by institutional clients to improve portfolio performance. Levine initially developed his expertise in financial engineering and securitization at KPMG Peat Marwick by developing mathematical models to evaluate structured securities.

Levine currently also serves as an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, where he teaches courses in Mortgage-Backed Securities, Corporate Finance and Investment Valuation. He received an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from NYU's Stern School and earned a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Levine is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA).

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CONTACT: Financepts, Princeton
         Charles Clement
         (609) 524-4004 
         cclement@financepts.com


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