Citi’s European rainmaker to lead Takeover Panel
SENIOR Citigroup banker Philip Robert-Tissot was yesterday named as the incoming head of the UK’s Takeover Panel, putting him in a key position to decide the outcome of acquisitions and influence policy in the area.
Robert-Tissot, who made no public comment on his appointment which takes effect on 1 April, succeeds Robert Gillespie, a senior M&A banker at advisory boutique Evercore Partners, who had been in the role since September 2010. He will join the Panel on a two-year secondment from Citi, where he currently holds the role as M&A chairman for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Robert-Tissot joined Schroders in 1989 and became a director there in 1996, before being made a managing director when Citi acquired Schroders’ investment banking business in 2000.
The Panel, which administers the UK’s code on takeovers and regulates deals to ensure fair treatment for investors, adopted tougher rules in 2011 designed to tip the balance of power back towards acquisition targets.
That move came in response to the acquisition of chocolate maker Cadbury by Kraft, which sparked public anger after the US buyer reversed a promise to keep a plant open.
The revised rules for instance give bidders less time to decide on a bid to avoid a UK company being under siege from a predator for months. Another change was that hostile bidders had to disclose what they paid their bankers.