Behind the deal: These are the bankers and advisers working on the £3.7bn Tesco-Booker tie-up
Tesco’s £3.7bn deal for wholesaler Booker is an early boost for the UK’s 2017 M&A market, following a rather subdued 2016. Below are details of the bankers and advisers behind the deal.
Tesco advisers
It’s increasingly difficult to find a big UK deal without a boutique investment bank at its centre. And this £3.7bn merger proved no exception:
Greenhill was lead adviser to Tesco on the deal. Its team was led by David Wyles, the bank’s president in London, and managing director Charles Gournay.
Read more: How boutiques have snatched bankers and M&A business from the heavyweights
Wyles has been with Greenhill since 1998, the year it launched in London. Previously, he had spent four years at Baring Brothers, working across both the UK and Amsterdam. The Royal Navy is another name on his CV, with Wyles having spent four years working for the weapon and communications system design and development arm.
Gournay, a graduate of Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris, joined Greenhill from UBS in 2009, having previously worked at Merrill Lynch and BNP in Paris.
Also on the buyside of the deal was Barclays, financial adviser, corporate broker and sponsor to Tesco. Its team was led by the firm’s head of UK investment banking and corporate broking, Alisdair Gayne, and Mark Todd, co-head of UK M&A.
The make-up of the Barclays advisory team could have been very different. The Sunday Times reported in 2015 that Gayne had submitted his resignation and was preparing to move to UBS as chairman of its UK investment bank. Bloomberg reported two days later, though, that he was persuaded to stay when Barclays made a higher offer.
Gayne was made sole head of UK investment banking, in addition to his role as head of corporate broking, in 2016. His corporate broking team, which launched from a standing start in 2010, has more than 50 clients, including 20 on the FTSE 100.
Todd was a high-profile hire for Barclays back in 2009. Having just worked on the sale of Somerfield to Co-Op, he was reportedly poached from Citigroup to become managing director of Barclays Capital’s M&A department.
Todd’s former employer also worked on the Tesco side of the deal as financial adviser and corporate broker. Managing directors Andrew Seaton and Edward McBride headed up the Citi advisers.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is legal adviser to Tesco. Partners Claire Wills and Stephen Hewes led on the deal, while Alastair Chapman and Deirdre Trapp worked on the competition side.
Read more: After subdued 2016, these bankers are calling a 2017 bounceback for UK M&A
Booker advisers
On the other side of the deal, JP Morgan Cazenove was financial adviser and corporate broker to Booker.
Dwayne Lysaght, the bank’s head of UK M&A, led the team along with executive director Adam Laursen, Behzad Arbabzadah, executive director covering UK consumer, retail, healthcare and leisure advisory, and Toby Radford, head of UK retail and consumer investment banking.
Lysaght is also working on the London Stock Exchange side of the £21bn Deutsche Boerse merger, as well as advising 21st Century Fox on its Sky takeover bid.
Clifford Chance was legal adviser to Booker, with corporate partners Lee Coney and David Pudge working alongside antitrust partner Greg Olsen on the deal.