By Sara Zaki
Simmons & Simmons' corporate finance practice has advised two new investment banking clients after offering break fees, seminars and other new products, as well
as promising consistent partner-level quality in transaction-based investment banking work.
Head of corporate finance, Stuart Evans, advised ING Barings for the first time as financial adviser to Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) on its £121.5m takeover of Bristol United Press (BUP), last week.
ING instructed the firm over its usual transactional advisers, which are believed to include Linklaters & Alliance, after Simmons directly contacted and pitched ING director Nick Dillon.
Corporate finance partner Martin Saywell and banking partner Nick Fisher had their first instruction from boutique M&A house Hawkpoint Partners in an innovative deal worth £250m.
Hawkpoint instructed Simmons as financial adviser to HLF Holdings, which bought insurer Lambert Fenchurch Group and broker Heath Group in a complex deal.
The boutique is understood to have telephoned Simmons to advise it after partners had spent months building up a relationship with two of the company's directors, Charles Williams and Lawrence Guthrie.
Hawkpoint bypassed its other transactional advisers, including Macfarlanes, Norton Rose and Travers Smith Braithwaite.
Evans said the corporate finance practice that was set up 18 months ago, was offering quality in return for the work, and was
targeting middle-tier work such as public takeovers, IPOs and share placements.