SWEETPICKINGS The ADVISERS
Fittingly for one of the largest M&A deals to be proposed so far this year, Kraft and Cadbury have appointed an army of advisers to stand behind them in their respective quests – a move which could cost the two firms upwards of $90m (£54m) in fees.
Cadbury is taking advice from Goldman Sachs, UBS and Morgan Stanley on the banking side, as well as Slaughter and May on the legal front.
The Goldman team is being headed by Karen Cook, who is truly deserving of the title of a “City superwoman”, having juggled her illustrious career to date with the demands of her six children. She is also currently a non-executive director at Tesco.
Acting for UBS are joint heads of UK investment banking Nick Reid and Tim Waddell, along with one of the bank’s most senior M&A bankers, James
Robertson. The three previously worked together on last year’s demerger of US drinks business Dr Pepper from the Cadbury Schweppes empire, as well as the sale of the chocolate giant’s Australian beverages division.
Leading the team at Morgan Stanley is Simon Robey, the co-chair of global M&A, while Slaughter and May’s go-to guy is Stephen Cooke, who heads up the M&A practice.
Cooke has built up an impressive reputation in the sector, including advising British Airways on its possible offer for Iberia and Cazenove on the merger of its investment banking business with JP Morgan.
Meanwhile the US consumer brands giant has enlisted Lazard, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup on the corporate broking side – with the teams headed up by heavyweights Bruce Wasserstein (Lazard’s chairman and chief executive),
James Agnew (the chairman of Deutsche’s corporate broking business) and David James (the co-head of the UK European capital markets and broking business at Citigroup).
Kraft has also appointed three big hitters on the financial advisory side:
Robert Pruzan, the co-founder of Centerview Partners; Leon Kalvaria, Citigroup’s head of consumer and healthcare investment banking; and Nigel Meek, head of UK investment banking at Deutsche Bank.
And aside from the banking side, Kraft has also enlisted the services of
Ernst & Young’s Michel Driessen and Clifford Chance partners Sarah Jones, Guy Norman and Rob Crothers.