The maker of Durex is buying a baby-formula company — and Wall Street stands to make more than $100 million from the deal

pulse

February 10, 2017 5:56 PM

On the sell side, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley could split $50 million to $60 million in deal fees.

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Reckitt Benckiser, the British maker of Durex condoms, is buying the baby-formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition for about $17 billion — and a handful of banks stand to earn tens of millions of dollars in fees.

The London-based boutique bank Robey Warshaw and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were the joint lead advisers to Reckitt. Along with Deutsche Bank and HSBC, they could earn $40 million to $50 million in advisory fees, according to the consultant Freeman & Co.

On the sell side, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley could split $50 million to $60 million for their work advising Mead Johnson.

The deal is one of the largest announced this year. And for Robey Warshaw, landing a role on it is part of a strong run the firm has had in the past year.

The firm earned $105 million in fees in 2016, according to data from Dealogic, advising on $67 billion worth of deals.

Robey Warshaw advised Softbank on its $30 billion deal for the chipmaker ARM, the London Stock Exchange on its sale to Deutsche Boerse, and SABMiller on its deal for Anheuser-Busch InBev.

It was founded in 2013 by the ex-Morgan Stanley banker Simon Robey and the ex-UBS banker Simon Warshaw. It has about 20 employees, who do not draw salaries but instead take a slice of profits.

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