Jefferies, the US mid-market investment bank that is expanding rapidly in Europe, has formed an alliance with a specialist mergers and acquisitions boutique in London to take advantage of record deal activity in the metals and mining sector.

The bank has tied up with Hatch Corporate Finance, a London-based metals and mining M&A advisory business owned by Hatch Group, which supplies process and business consulting, information technology, engineering, and project and construction management to the mining, metallurgical, manufacturing, energy and infrastructure industries.