Paul Taubman's PJT Partners Advising Verizon on $2.4 Billion Acquisition

By Lucy Burton 

Bankers at PJT Partners are advising Verizon Communications Inc. on a multibillion-dollar acquisition, marking the first high-profile transaction out of London for the U.S. boutique run by veteran M&A banker Paul Taubman since it opened the doors of a Mayfair office last year.

Verizon's $2.4 billion agreed bid for Irish-headquartered but New York-listed GPS vehicle-tracking firm Fleetmatics is a win for PJT's founder Mr. Taubman, who after leaving Morgan Stanley in 2012 advised Verizon on its $130 billion acquisition of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless in 2013. Mr. Taubman worked independently before he set up PJT in 2013. PJT later merged with Blackstone Group LP's spun-off advisory business in October 2014.

While the ties between company and adviser have remained close, the latest takeover by Verizon is the first time PJT's London team have grabbed an official slice of the action on a public M&A deal since the office opened in October 2015, a person familiar with the matter said.

The acquisition, announced on Aug. 1, comes as PJT bankers in the U.S. continue to work on Verizon's deal to buy Yahoo Inc.'s Web assets for $4.8 billion in cash . That deal was announced on July 25, and PJT, rather than working for Verizon, has been working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for Yahoo on the firm's strategic options since May.

Along with PJT bankers from San Francisco and New York, London-based partner Basil Geoghegan, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank AG and, most recently, Citigroup Inc., is listed as one of Verizon's advisers in a regulatory statement announcing the Fleetmatics deal. He is working alongside fellow London-based adviser Owain Parry, who also joined PJT from Citi in 2015.

Wells Fargo & Co., which agreed to buy a new London headquarters building following the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union on June 24, also has two of its London-based bankers acting for Verizon on the deal, according to the regulatory filing--Sam Small and Calvin Tarlton. The pair are working alongside three New York bankers.

For Fleetmatics, which is taking advice from Morgan Stanley, Colm Donlon, the bank's head of M&A in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is among the advisers on the ticket, alongside former FN Rising Star David Kitterick. Other named bankers are Pedra Costa, Brett Klein and Anatoliy Gliberman.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 02, 2016 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)

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