Taubman lures more dealmakers to boutique

A former Morgan Stanley dealmaker has lured three senior European bankers to a new partnership incorporating Blackstone'sadvisory business - in a further sign of the rise of boutique firms as merger activity increases.

Paul Taubman, chairman and chief executive of New York-based PJT Partners, has hired Basil Geoghegan from Citigroup, Rakesh Patel from JPMorgan Chase and Simon Lyons from UBS to join his firm, according to people familiar with the matter.

They will work at PJT Partners' European operation, which has already poached Johannes Groeller, co-head of mergers and acquisition at Europe, Middle East and Africa at Morgan Stanley. All parties declined to comment.

Mr Geoghegan, a managing director at Citigroup, has been focused on UK-based financial institutions and looking after US bank's Irish clients.

Mr Patel, meanwhile, was named co-head of Emea healthcare at JPMorgan in early 2014 and has been involved in some of the largest healthcare transactions since then - including US drugmaker Pfizer's attempted takeover of the UK's AstraZeneca.

At UBS, Mr was a managing director focused on UK and private equity clients.

Their departures are the latest examples of senior dealmakers leaving investment banks for smaller advisory firms as M&A activity surges around the world.

Smaller firms have been increasingly challenging larger banks for fees, and a couple of this year's largest transactions have involved only independent advisers, such as Heinz's $100bn merger with US foods group Kraft.

Mr Taubman started PJT Partners last year after leaving Morgan Stanley in late 2012 and having subsequently advised on a couple megadeals including Verizon's $130bn acquisition of Vodafone's interest in its wireless business.

Blackstone, which started in the 1980s as an investment firm focused on serving M&A clients, announced plans last year to spin off its advisory arm and combine it with PJT to reduce conflicts of interest with its huge asset management operations.

Along with its M&A advisory arm, PJT Partners will incorporate Blackstone's highly-rated restructuring business and Park Hill, a firm that specialises in helping private equity firms and hedge funds raise new capital. Blackstone's restructuring business is currently working with Ukraine's creditors on sovereign debt negotiations.

However, a sizeable portion of Blackstone's existing investment bankers will not be joining the new company, people close to the matter have previously said.

PJT Partners tie-up with the Blackstone businesses is expected to be completed sometime later this year, resulting in a listing of PJT, which will put it up against other top publicly traded advisory firms such as Lazard, Moelis, Evercore and Greenhill.

Ahead of the merger, both PJT and Blackstone have remained busy working on deals. PJT Partners advised Verizon on the sale of its wireline assets to Frontier Communications for $10.5bn. Blackstone advised US pharmacy benefits group Catamaran on its $12.8bn sale to larger rival UnitedHealth Group.

However, one of Mr Taubman's hoped-for megadeals collapsed after regulators blocked cable giant Comcast's takeover of Time Warner Cable.

Additional reporting by Joseph Cotterill

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