After Barrenjoey Capital Partners poached many of UBS’ most senior bankers, it was said the upstart firm had managed to get everything it wanted from the Swiss giant –
The investment bank has ploughed millions-of-dollars into talent, and is winning work in mergers and acquisitions advisory and equity capital markets against mainstays like UBS and Goldman Sachs.its carrying value of Barrenjoey to $124 million from $133.2 million, the bank’s executives were inundated with queries from investors, clients and bankers, asking why the valuation dipped.
The British bank – an 18 per cent shareholder in the start-up bank – was a global distributor for Barrenjoey when it was one of five institutions chosen to work on the federal government’s $8 billion bond sale this month.Success in fixed income requires global connectivity and overseas investors.
Patient enough to stomach the costs of converting a corporate advisory shop into a rounded bank with research capabilities and prime brokerage.A lack of institutional-size initial public offerings has seen Barrenjoey complete block trades, and smaller equity raisings in the realm of Canaccord and Euroz Hartley, among others.
“The Goldmans of the world go after the big deals ... they want large clients. Barrenjoey has spent money in the hope they pick up share, and leverage their position when the market picks up,” another banker says.But no number of rainmakers can force an IPO window open, or reverse a global slump in M&A.Barrenjoey’s well-connected bankers snagged roles on both of these deals, but transactions stuck in regulatory limbo hurt an already hamstrung fee pool.