Blackstone Hires UBS Banker to Lead Energy Advisory Group

The investment banking arm of the Blackstone Group has hired a UBS executive to lead its energy and power advisory practice.

James R. Schaefer, who most recently was global head of the power and renewable energy group at UBS, has joined Blackstone Advisory Partners as a senior managing director, the firm said on Thursday. He is based in New York.

The move comes several months after another prominent UBS banker, Karl Knapp, joined Blackstone Advisory Partners to run its global industrials practice. Mr. Knapp, who joined in September, had been head of the global industrials group at UBS and vice chairman of the Swiss bank’s investment banking division.

“I am pleased to join Blackstone’s exceptional advisory practice, and to help the group take advantage of the tremendous opportunity to grow its energy, power and renewables practice in the coming years,” Mr. Schaefer said in a statement on Thursday.

Though Blackstone is perhaps best known for its private equity deals, investment banking is the firm’s oldest business. The advisory unit showed strong growth in the third quarter of 2013, with revenue increasing 40 percent, to $87.2 million.

At UBS, Mr. Schaefer advised energy companies like the OGE Corporation on its $11 billion joint venture with CenterPoint last year, and Constellation Energy on a $4.5 billion deal with Électricité de France in 2008, Blackstone said.

“Jim’s talents, leadership and formidable C.E.O. network will be critical to accelerating our success and raising the firm’s profile in this area,” John Studzinski, global head of Blackstone Advisory Partners, said in a statement. “We anticipate adding further professionals to our energy and power team in the near term, as this is one of our core industry areas of excellence.”