Trimaran Capital Partners was founded in 2000 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert and CIBC World Markets investment bankers Jay Bloom, Andrew Heyer, and Dean Kehler.

The Argosy team had been involved in many of the most prominent high yield financings of the preceding two decades, for companies including RJR Nabisco, Beatrice Foods, and Storer Communications.

[6] The Argosy Group focused on debt underwriting, private placements, sales and trading, proprietary special situation investing, and restructuring advisory assignments for highly leveraged companies.

[4][11] With the acquisition of Argosy in 1995 and Oppenheimer & Co. in 1997, the center of gravity of CIBC's investment banking operations began to shift toward the United States.

CIBC's High Yield Group began to develop a reputation for financing complex leveraged buyout transactions and worked closely with several of the leading private equity firms.

In the aggregate, these businesses had several hundred employees in the United States, Canada and the U.K.[4][8] In 1997, the CIBC Argosy Merchant funds backed Gary Winnick and his telecom venture, Global Crossing, which embarked on a project to build optical fiber cable connections under the ocean between Europe and North America.

Bloom, Heyer and Kehler were succeeded by managing directors Edward Levy and Bruce Spohler, who had worked previously at Argosy and Drexel, together with Bill Phoenix.

[18] As part of this reallocation, and in an effort to reduce conflicts between the bank's principal investments and its financial sponsor clients, the Trimaran operations would subsequently spinout completely from CIBC World Markets.

Trimaran Capital Partners became independent of CIBC in February 2006[19] Although Trimaran had made some investments in telecom and internet startups in 2000 and had also made investments in companies such as Iasis Healthcare and Village Voice Media,[20] the bulk of its capital from its $1 billion 2001-vintage private equity fund was uninvested after its first year and a half.

[21] In 2003, Trimaran completed a number of leveraged buyouts including Reddy Ice (with Bear Stearns Merchant Banking),[22] Norcraft (with Saunders Karp & Megrue)[23] Trimaran made a series of investments in 2004 including: jewellery retailer Fortunoff,[24][25][26][27] specialty apparel retailer Urban Brands (Ashley Stewart clothing) and auto parts manufacturer Accuride Corporation.

Trimaran plans to raise an interim $300 million to make deals happen while beating the bushes for money for the larger fund.

Mistral formed a partnership with the Schottenstein family, which has acquired well-known retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, DSW Shoe Warehouse and Filene's Basement.

[32] The family made an equity commitment to the new Mistral fund, and Jay Schottenstein assumed a part-time advisory role with the firm.

The move, reuniting a former team from Drexel Burnham Lambert, does not signal an end to Trimaran, which will continue on as an independent entity.