London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse deal: Robey Warshaw, Linklaters and Perella Weinberg among the big players working on the merger
As the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Boerse hammer out the details of their potential merger, City PM takes a look at the bankers and other advisers trying to make the deal happen.
Boutique banks are booming, and none more so than London-based Robey Warshaw. Co-founder Simon Robey may be a huge Arsenal fan, but was forced to miss last night's defeat to Barcelona as he was hard at work on another huge pan-European event – namely the London Stock Exchange's proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse.
It is testament to Robey Warshaw's burgeoning success that few eyebrows were raised when the bank was named as the LSE's top adviser on the deal yesterday afternoon.
The modestly-sized outfit became the talk of the town last year, nabbing highly-coveted positions on huge mergers and acquisitions, such as Shell's £36bn takeover of BG, Aviva's £5.6bn tie-up with Friends Life and, most impressively, the intoxicating $100bn+ SABMiller-AB InBev deal known as Mega-Brew.
The year ended with Robey being named Dealmaker of the Year at City PM's Awards, with Robey Warshaw breaking into the top 10 of the closely-watched M&A league table.
Robey has worked with the London Stock Exchange before, for example on 2014's purchase of Frank Russell.
On the other side of the table sits Andrew Bednar, who is advising Deutsche Boerse on behalf of another boutique – Perella Weinberg. City PM understands that Philip Yates is on the deal for Perella Weinberg from the London office.
Bednar, who is based in New York, is a previous M&A banker at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America and a graduate of Cornell. And on the legal side, Linklaters' Roger Barron is advising on the deal, while fellow Magic Circle law firm Freshfields is also involved.