Evercore Eveready to Make Evermore Money
The Times greets news of Evercore Partners’ IPO plans with a loud snore, noting that it’s “long been the subject of whispering at the rights tables at the Four Seasons.” IPO are always fun because of the insider juice that gets revealed in the filings. In this case, comp for the top dogs. In 2005, we learn, Roger Altman took home $9.7 million whil Austin Buetner and Wduardo Mester pocketed $7.4 million and $5.7 million, respectively. Chump change compared to what a public offering could net them.
Brand-Name Bankers Rule Street Again [NY Times]
Blackstone’s Gain Is HSBC’s Loss
Signalling its intention to take its M&A business global, Blackstone Group announced yesterday that it had hired away mergers vet John Studzinski from HSBC, which has been struggling a bit itself. The 49-year old London banker is said to have been increasingly at odds with his former co-head of investment banking, Stuart Gulliver. Blackstone is betting that its pure advisory business, unfettered by banking or reserach conflicts, will prove an attractive choice for corporate bigwigs looking for strategic advice.
Top HSBC Banker Jumps to Blackstone [NY Times]
Evidently Size Does Matter for UBS Brokerage Unit
Banks like private clients because most of these individuals don’t know very much and are therefore quite easy to stick with high-fee products that line the pockets of the financial advisor and the firm. So it’s not hard to understand why UBS, which is trying desperately to overcome a bad case of penis envy towards it larger peers Merrill and Smith Barney, opted to drop $500 million to acquire Piper Jaffray’s 842 brokers. We gather that many of the Piper brokers live in a large town called Minneapolis. Ever heard of it?
UBS Buying Piper Brokerage Unit [Wall Street Journal]
Goldman’s “Long-Term Greedy” Strategy
In a world in which Goldman increasingly makes its profits by wisely investing its own capital, the firm may be starting to view its investment banking business as one giant marketing exercise not designed to make any money. That’s what some people are taking away from the firm’s decision to sell $2.1 billion of stock in a secondary offering for Google for just $1 million in fees. “Goldman is doing it from the point of view that this is a powerful new company that could be doing more deals in the future,” said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Brad Hintz. “Goldman may have decided to do the deal to be associated with Google,” echoes Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida.
Loss Leader-Like Sales [Bloomberg]
