NewSmith Capital Partners, the fast-growing asset management and corporate finance boutique set up by ex-Merrill Lynch senior managers, has added two more partners including the former head of Italian equity capital markets at Citigroup.

The arrivals, which will allow NewSmith to focus on Italian business, bring the number of partners at the boutique to 39 compared with just five when it was set up two years ago by former Merrill managers Michael Marks, Paul Roy and Stephen Zimmerman.