The great annuities merger of Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance must break new records in the number of City advisers scrambling to claim credit.
No fewer than 16 bankers and brokers appeared in the so-called “tombstone” declaration to the Stock Exchange.
But for five of them – on either side of the deal – it marked a happy reunion. They all worked together either at Kleinwort Benson or Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette.
From Kleinwort, Michael Lamb (now at Barclays) and Malik Karim (now running his independent boutique Fenchurch) were on the Just Retirement ticket, while their old mucker Conor Hillery, now at JPMorgan was advising Partnership. From DLJ, step forward William Nourse, acting for Just Retirement at Deutsche, and Evercore’s Andrew Sibbald, working for Partnership.
It all made for chummy deal talks, but I guess it won’t be so pally when they see how thinly spread the bonus pot is.
