Bulge bracket and boutique share fee bonanza for Nokia Alcatel deal

By Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - A Wall Street giant and a two-man advisory boutique are to share up to $67 million in fees for working on the 15.5 billion euro ($16.6 billion/11.2 billion pound) tie-up between Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting. JPMorgan was sole adviser to Nokia on the deal which will reshape the telecom equipment sector and could hand the U.S. bank between $24 million and $32 million in advisory fees, according to preliminary estimates. On the other side of the table sat Zaoui & Co, an advisory firm set up by two investment banking brothers, who were called in to help negotiate for Alcatel-Lucent and could earn between $26 million and $35 million for their work. JPMorgan and Zaoui & Co declined to comment. The advisory line-up highlights two growing trends seen so far this year: the rise of boutiques and an increasing number of sole advisory mandates. Just a week ago, Bank of America Merrill Lynch emerged as sole adviser to Royal Dutch Shell on its $70 billion takeover offer for rival energy company BG. BG was advised by Goldman Sachs and advisory boutique Robey Warshaw LLP. So far this year, 15.5 percent of all deals globally by value had just one adviser negotiating for the target and one for the buyer, according to Thomson Reuters data. That compares with 11.7 percent for the same period last year and 8 percent in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. M&A advisory boutiques accounted for 27 percent of global M&A fees in the first quarter of 2015 compared with around 23 percent in 2009 and around 20 percent ten years ago. Large banks tout their financing muscle as well as their prowess in areas ranging from currency hedging to treasury management to win big M&A assignments. But boutiques and independent investment banks say their model poses fewer conflicts of interest than that of full-service banks, which often seek to cross-sell products to clients. In another blockbuster deal this year, the $46 billion merger of H.J. Heinz Co and Kraft Foods Group Inc, independent investment banks beat the so-called bulge bracket firms on the ticket. Lazard and Centerview were the only investment banks advising the two companies. JPMorgan is no stranger to Nokia having worked on the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2013. It currently ranks third worldwide on deals announced by value, having worked on 76 deals worth $208 billion so far this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. Zaoui & Co, founded by brothers Michael and Yoel Zaoui formerly of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, has won a string of high-profile deal mandates since its launch in 2013. Following the Nokia transaction, it jumps to 23rd from 33rd position in the worldwide M&A league tables, having advised on 3 transactions worth $24 billion so far this year. Most recently, it was sole financial adviser to GO Scale Capital on its $2.8 billion acquisition of Philips' Lumileds lighting components division and advised cement maker Lafarge on its merger with Holcim ($1 = 0.9396 euros) (Reporting By Anjuli Davies. Editing by Jane Merriman)