UBS BRINGS OUT IPADS TO SECURE €7BN FLOAT
IT IS bigger than Glencore and the largest lottery IPO in history. So it is little wonder the global investment banks are pulling out all the stops to be appointed as advisers on the multibillion-euro float of the Spanish national lottery.
The Spanish government hopes to raise between €6.5bn and €7.5bn by issuing 30 per cent of the state-owned Loterias y Apuestas del Estado, and “anyone who is anyone” in investment banking flew to Madrid last week to pitch for the lucrative business. “It is a gem,” said one observer. “It is the float everyone wants to be on.”
Leading the pack of the 20 to 25 investment banks understood to have pitched for the lottery business was UBS, led by head of equity capital markets EMEA Peter Guenthardt, which gave its presentation to the Loterias executives on iPads – apparently so the bank could include video footage of its group chief executive Oswald Grubel.
“I guess they want to stand out, but it is a slightly strange way to do business,” said a banking source on the Swiss firm’s attempts to “jazz up” its presentation, in a departure from the customary A4 pitch books favoured by investment banks.
Obviously, all the iPads were collected at the end of the presentation, as to leave them as a memento for the lottery executives would be “very inappropriate”, as a UBS spokesperson made extremely clear to The Capitalist. It will be interesting to see if rival banks follow suit in this new iPad craze if UBS is among the successful advisers announced next week…
ANGEL INVESTOR
LORD Stanley Fink is putting his hedge fund fortune to good use by backing young entrepreneurs as an angel investor, and the former Man Group chief executive is receiving so many proposals that Fink now has a team of people filtering through the requests.
So here’s a tip for young entrepreneurs hoping to secure backing from the softly spoken hedge fund tycoon: make sure your business is about more than just making money, as Fink is keen on businesses that have a social impact or contribute to the green agenda.
Fink gave his advice as a presenter at a seminar organised by Entrepreneurs World, where Edward Wray spoke about his “journey” co-founding BetFair. “Always raise more money than you need to cover unforeseen circumstances,” warned Wray.
GAME OF TWO HALVES
THERE was no time to hang around when Karren Brady (right) led a networking event at the Soho hotel as part of her role as a mentor to the Avon representatives.
Moving on to goals of another kind, the West Ham vice-chairman had to make an early exit to make it to the club’s East London home in time for the press conference to unveil new manager Sam Allardyce with West Ham’s co-owners David Gold and David Collins.
POINT OF DIFFERENCE
MEANWHILE, nine-times Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova (above with SJ Berwin partners Cameron Firth and Rob Day), came to breakfast at SJ Berwin to explain why diversity is a “business necessity”.
“When I retired from being a tennis champion, I retired from tennis, but I didn’t – and never will – retire from being a champion of human rights,” Navratilova told 100 of the law firm’s clients in her account of the discrimination and oppression she has faced. “Retirement would mean settling for what we have now and that is not enough for me.”