US banks lead the way on merger Monday
THERE should be little surprise in the City that US banks featured so dominantly as advisers to yesterday’s spate of takeover deals. Over the past 10 years, the share of global M&A fees taken by European-based banks such as Credit Suisse, UBS, and Deutsche, has declined from 24.47 per cent to 18.66 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Goldman Sachs and New York’s LionTree Advisors are advising Charter on its blockbuster bid for Time Warner Cable.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is advising Amec on its £1.9bn agreed takeover of the Swiss-based Foster Wheeler, which is itself being advised by the all-American combo of JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
JP Morgan has reorganised its banking teams to make them more able to serve clients doing cross-border deals. Last year, JP Morgan increased its market share of takeover and merger deals from 21.22 per cent to 27.81 per cent in EMEA, while some of the European banks lost ground.
Amid yesterday’s takeover frenzy, Credit Suisse did manage to get a leading role, alongside the boutique Centerview, advising Beam on the $16bn bid from Japanese drinks group Suntory, for whom the US bank Morgan Stanley and Japan’s Mitsubishi acted. The US bank Jefferies acted for Hain Celestial in its bid for Tilda rice, which was advised by Rothschild.