ADVISERS ON THE UK’S MEGA-MERGER
Barclays Capital was a last minute entrant onto the adviser list, City A.M. learned yesterday.
The Bob Diamond-led bank, which made it onto the Facebook IPO, declined to comment last night.
BarCap’s inclusion came late on Monday night as the final touches were being put to the deal. Inclusion will help it maintain progress in the investment banking league tables.
Of the 18 investment banking advisers to the merger, there is probably one individual name that stands out most: that of Michael Klein, formerly of Citigroup. The star banker has been acting as a sounding board between the directors on both sides and has played an important role in getting the two companies together.
Getting onto the roster of a deal of this magnitude is pretty special for a banker acting as a consultant rather than as part of an institution. It’s the kind of mandate that’s awarded very rarely, reminiscent of BP asking Philip Lambert to advise it on its ultimately unsuccessful acquisition of Rosneft.
Citi’s David Wormsley, who took several months off to go travelling after his involvement in a dramatic court dispute with Nomura’s Guy Hands, is leading the official advisory team for Glencore alongside Morgan Stanley’s Michael Antakly. Like Wormsley, the Morgan Stanley man worked on Glencore’s flotation last year.
Goldman Sachs remained on the sidelines during the Glencore flotation but the bank is on the roster this time around as one of Xstrata’s advisers. Its team is led by Brett Olsher, who has worked with Xstrata in the past and is known to have close ties with Mick Davis, the merged group’s chief executive. Also on the Xstrata team is Deutsche Bank, whose Nigel Robinson is no stranger to big deals, and JP Morgan’s Ian Hannam, a long-time adviser to Davis.
JP Morgan also missed out on the Glencore flotation because of Hannam’s close links to Xstrata. Nomura’s William Vereker is another Xstrata adviser.