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SIMON MACKENZIE-SMITH
Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs are the joint bookrunners and sponsors of Punch Tavern’s fundraising, which is subject to approval at the company’s annual meeting in July.
Merrill Lynch’s head of UK corporate and investment banking Simon Mackenzie-Smith is the client relationship manager for Punch Taverns. He represents a team that is lead by Merrill’s managing director of corporate broking Andrew Osborne and its president of international equity capital markets (ECM) for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Mackenzie-Smith has been with Merrill since 1996, when he joined as managing director of investment banking. He is credited with being instrumental in establishing the bank’s UK franchise, and has been involved in a wide range of mergers and acquisitions and restructurings – including Punch’s acquisition of managed pubs operation Spirit in 2006.
Hume-Kendall has been at the group for a decade and worked in the equities, corporate broking and capital markets and financing teams.
Welshman Osborne, who also has a long history in the City, is known as much for his passion for rugby as he is for his good advice. One industry insider described Osborne as the “personification of relationship broking”.