Boutiques back in spotlight in HP-Autonomy bid – CNBC.com
NEW YORK – Boutique investment banks snatched fees away from their larger rivals by taking central roles in two of this week’s largest deals.
Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners, in particular, has had a windfall week, working on both Hewlett-Packard Co’s $11.7 billion deal to buy Autonomy Corp and Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings..
Boutique Perella Weinberg Partners landed along with Barclays in advising Hewlett-Packard.
Autonomy said Qatalyst was its lead financial adviser, but Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, UBS and JPMorgan Chasealso advised the company on the deal.
Qatalyst will get the lion’s share of $32 million to $40 million in fees for the Autonomy sale, while Barclays and Perella will split around $27 million to $34 million, according to an estimate by consulting firm Freeman & Co.
Boutiques are smaller, more specialized investment banks that deal with a more limited clientele and offer a narrower product line than the bigger Wall Street firms.
Motorola hired Centerview Partners and Qatalyst to advise on its purchase by Google, which used Lazard Ltd as its banker for the deal.
Qatalyst was founded in 2008 by former Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley banker Quattrone, who was accused in 2003 of giving out IPO shares in exchange for business.
According to Thomson Reuters data, which double-counts deals involving more than one firm, Qatalyst, Centerview Perella Weinberg and competitor Moelis & Co have advised on nearly $900 billion-worth of transactions since 2006.
“The boutique model continues to fire on all cylinders. It’s a good model,” said one banker at a boutique firm. “Historically, the boutiques were 5 to 7 percent of the market. We are going to be in the 20s probably of the total fee pool.”
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