Evercore buys Lexicon to up Europe stake
US INVESTMENT banking adviser Evercore agreed to buy UK boutique advisory firm Lexicon Partners for a total £86m, it said yesterday, in a deal set to make millionaires of Lexicon’s founders.
The deal will see Andrew Sibbald, Lexicon’s senior partner, 27 other partners and more than 70 employees share £38m in cash, equivalent to 44 per cent of the total amount, as soon as the deal closes.
The remaining £48m will be deferred for three to four years with an extra year of transfer restrictions, with more than 80 per cent of it, or £38.4m, in Evercore shares.
The deal will add to Evercore’s financial services and utilities expertise, while the takeover will grow its London presence alone to 75 bankers.
Seven of Lexicon’s senior staff will become senior managing directors at Evercore, the firm said.
Sibbald will become chief executive of Evercore’s European advisory business based in Mayfair, leaving Bernard Taylor, its current vice chairman and chief executive for Europe, as European chairman.
But the takeover may alter the shape of Lexicon’s deal structure, moving it to advising bigger deals and companies and away from its boutique origins.
Lexicon has advised on high-profile financial services deals including defending Prudential from Aviva’s unwanted takeover approach in 2006; Jupiter Fund Management’s £755m initial public offering last year; and private equity consortium Achilles’ £880m takeover of Brit Insurance, which closed this year.
Sibbald co-founded Lexicon in 2000 with fellow bankers Angus Winther, Duncan Buck, Mark Hennessy and New York-based Stuart Britton, former colleagues from investment banks Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and the Phoenix Partnership.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.