As part of our growing coverage of the wine and spirits industry, BMO recently announced the addition of the team from Zepponi & Company, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisory firm for the global beverage alcohol industry.

The addition will allow BMO to grow its Wine & Spirits group through Zepponi’s contacts and expertise while providing Zepponi with BMO’s global resources. The Zepponi team will join BMO’s Middle Market M&A group, led by Cameron Hewes.

“I’m extremely excited about the addition of the Zepponi & Company advisory team to BMO Middle Market M&A,” Hewes said. “In conjunction with our existing wine advisory practice, as well as our wine lending practice, BMO now has a significant beverage alcohol lending and advisory practice that can meet the needs of wine and spirits producers of all sizes.”

Adam Beak, who leads BMO’s Wine & Spirits group, told WineBusiness that the addition of the Zepponi team will allow the bank to take on more business. “Mergers and acquisitions [have] been a constant theme for the last 30 years, and I don’t think that’s changing any time soon,” Beak told the publication. “Clients are interested in acquisitions, and people across the industry are always looking.”

With offices in Santa Rosa, California, and Portland, Oregon, Zepponi provides corporate finance and transaction advisory services. The firm has advised on about 100 transactions since its founding in 2009, including advising Hahn Family Wines on the recent sale of its wine portfolio to E & J Gallo Winery.

“Supporting the acceleration of the growth of our Wine & Spirits vertical, this effort reiterates BMO’s long-term commitment to becoming the leading commercial and investment bank to the beverage alcohol industry,” said Ray Whitacre, Head, BMO Commercial Bank. “The addition of the Zepponi team is also highly complementary to our wine lending business. This is a notable milestone in our U.S. growth journey and adds to our unique value proposition.”

BMO has been steadily growing its presence in the wine and spirits industry, including establishing the U.S. Wine Industry Partnership as a leading resources for industry insights. Our latest report focuses on the new dynamics in the wine M&A market.