- Blackstone just announced one of the largest leveraged buyouts in its history,
- A tiny investment bank out of London that has been around for less than a year was a lead adviser to Blackstone.
- Canson Capital Partners formed in early 2017 and has just five bankers, but it'll share in the pie of as much as $80 million in advisory fees on the deal.
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A tiny advisory firm with just 3 partners will earn a slice of the $80 million in advisory fees from the $17 billion Reuters-Blackstone deal
Canson Capital, a tiny UK investment bank that has been around for less than a year, was a lead adviser on the $17 billion Reuters-Blackstone deal.
Blackstone just completed one of the largest leveraged buyouts in the company's history, paying Thomson Reuters $17 billion to take a 55% stake in its financial data business.
Including debt, it values Thomson Reuters' Financial & Risk business at $20 billion, making it the largest deal Blackstone has arranged since the financial crisis.
Guiding Blackstone on the mammoth deal was a tiny investment bank out of the United Kingdom that has been around for less than a year.
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Canson Capital Partners, a boutique advisory firm founded in early 2017 by ex-HSBC bankers James Simpson and Matteo Canonaco, had a lead role advising Blackstone, which will net the firm a healthy chunk of the $10 million to $20 million in fees Blackstone is expected to pay its bankers, according to Jeffrey Nassof, the director of consulting firm Freeman & Co. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and JPMorgan also advised Blackstone.
Canson, formerly named DuCanon, is an outfit of just three bankers and two senior advisers based out of a Mayfair office building in London, where it focuses on private equity transactions.
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It's not their first time advising Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm. The boutique's inaugural deal came last July, four months after launching, when it helped Blackstone buy Clarion Events for £600 million ($850 million), according to the Financial Times.
Guggenheim Securities was the lead adviser to Thomson Reuters. It'll split a fee of $50 million to $60 million, according to Nassof, with TD Securities and Centerview Partners, a small advisory boutique that had a stellar year in advising on megadeals in 2017.
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Still, at 37 partners, Centerview almost looks like a bulge bracket bank compared with the three partners at Canson.
In total, the banks could earn as much as $80 million for advising on the transaction.
The deal is expected to be financed with $13 billion in debt, which Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and JPMorgan will split $130 million to $160 million in fees for arranging, according to Nassof
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