Roger Altman, who runs Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR), is a consummate dealmaker, with an amazing network of influential people -- he was formerly a U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary during the Clinton years. Even though the global economy is in turmoil, he sees lots of opportunity, especially in countries like China.

To this end, Evercore has put together a joint venture (JV) with Citic Securities called Citic Securities International Partners. It's certainly a big deal as Citic is the biggest securities firm in China.

In the JV, Evercore and Citic will engage in an assortment of activities like direct investments and cross-border M&A advisory.

Like its peers, investors have been dour on Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR), which is a boutique investment bank. But this week, the firm got some nice support; Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., has agreed to purchase $120 million in senior unsecured notes in Evercore. The deal also includes a warrant to purchase 5,454,545 shares at $22 a piece. In fact, Mizuho has agreed to commit $150 million to Evercore-affiliated funds.

With the credit crunch, it's always good to get a slug of cash. But the Evercore deal is more than just a capital infusion. Basically, the firm will strengthen its existing strategic alliance with Mizuho -- so as to better penetrate the Japanese marketplace. For the most part, cross-border deals are likely to become increasingly important for investment banks.

Actually, Evercore recently announced a strategic alliance with G5 Advisors, which is an investment bank in Sao Paulo. With the strong growth in Brazil, there should be some opportunities to snag assignments.

But such things take time to play out. After all, as seen with Evercore's latest quarterly report, revenues were off 9% to $60.1 million, with profits at $2.1 million, or $0.16 per share.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.