Anyone pondering the deep animosity some hold towards investment bankers could do worse than examining the travails of can and bottling company Orora.It did so while its board was advised by a coterie of the nation’s smartest and best-paid investment bankers, one of which, Macquarie, helped it raise a bucketload of cash to pay too much for a European bottling company.
Last year, Orora turned to Citi and Macquarie to spring on investors a $1.35 billion deeply discounted, non-reconcile capital raising to fund its purchase of French bottler Saverglass, then-owned by The Carlyle Group. They’re also the first people boards such as Orora’s turn to when considering shaking things up. Paid on transaction size, they have no deep regard for long-term success. And the Saverglass acquisition – described by Allan Gray’s