IBI’s Tom Godfrey and Ted Webb
Ireland’s busiest M&A advisory firm, IBI Corporate Finance, is in talks to sell itself to Japanese financial giant Daiwa’s DC Advisory business.
It is understood talks on a sale are at an advanced stage.
They come six years after Bank of Ireland sold the business, which was its corporate finance arm, IBI Corporate Finance, to management in a deal understood to have valued the firm at €10m.
That deal was structured in part in order for the advisory end of the business to escape the then strict pay and bonus caps that applied at banks that had been bailed out during the financial crisis.
The Currency website, which first reported the latest deal talks on Tuesday, said a new deal is likely to value the business significantly higher.
The Irish Independent understands that IBI will retain its current market-leading brand, in a modified form, if a deal with DC Advisory goes ahead.
Current management, headed by Tom Godfrey and Ted Webb, and senior executives will continue to lead the business under a new DC Advisory structure, it is understood. That is likely to be a deal breaker for any buyer, with the value of any boutique advisor house tightly linked to the contacts and knowledge of top dealmakers.
Figures prepared for this newspaper earlier this month ranked IBI Corporate Finance as the busiest M&A advisor in the Irish market in the first nine months of the year, despite strong competition from larger professional services firms and global investment banks.
IBI currently operates as part of a global network of advisors called Oaklins and has also retained strong links with Bank of Ireland after its sale, including advising it in the takeover of Davy Stockbrokers.
IBI provides advice to public, private and semi-state companies on strategic actions such as disposals, growth capital, debt advisory and restructuring and strategic projects, as well as deal making. Sources suggest a deal could be finalised over the coming month.
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