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Partner of Gibbons Green to Start L.A. Banking Firm

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Leonard I. Green, who in 1980 opened a California office for Gibbons, Green, von Amerongen, a New York investment banking partnership he helped found 20 years ago, said Thursday that he will create a similar venture in Los Angeles.

In an announcement released in New York, Green and co-founder Edward Gibbons described the parting as friendly. That would be in keeping with the philosophy of Gibbons Green, which has specialized in “friendly” acquisitions.

Friendly investments will be the goal as well of Green’s new--and as yet unnamed--venture with Christopher V. Walker, another Gibbons Green partner.

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Green, 55, and Walker, 42, will continue to work closely with Gibbons Green, which will continue to do business under its present name. The two firms “will continue to work closely together, both directly and through shared directorships in companies in which Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen and its limited partners continue to have joint investments,” the statement said.

The participants were heading for a board meeting in Louisville, Ky., and were unavailable for comment.

Since its founding in 1969, Gibbons Green has concluded 28 transactions with a total value of $5.3 billion. These include the 1986 purchase from Transamerica Corp. of its Budget Rent-a-Car unit for $520 million. Ten days later, Gibbons Green bought Bath Iron Works, one of the nation’s most successful shipbuilders, from Congoleum for $550 million. It also acquired Purex in 1982 for $372 million, later selling the soap and cleansers business to Greyhound, another portion to Armour-Dial and liquidating the rest.

Gibbons Green also is general partner of three equity buyout funds--Fulcrum I, II and III--and is organizing Fulcrum IV, to raise $750 million in investment capital. Before the withdrawal of Green and Walker, the firm was composed of six partners and four “associates.”

The joint statement said Green and Walker intend to continue the Gibbons Green policy of avoiding hostile transactions but may--as has Gibbons Green on occasion--participate as a white knight in a contested takeover.

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