The $35.1 billion merger of Publicis and Omnicom, creating a new behemoth in the advertising industry, raised eyebrows for many reasons.
One of which was that the giant deal involved only two investment banks â€" and neither was one of the bulge-bracket firms, like Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan Chase.
Instead, Rothschild advised Publicis, while Moelis & Company advised Omnicom. It’s a big win for both firms, which will rise in this year’s league tables as a result.
According to Thomson Reuters data, Rothschild  advances two places among merger advisers worldwide in the year to date, rising to 13th place from 15th.  Moelis rises to the No. 11 spot from 12th.
It is in the moribund deal market of Europe that the impact of the Publicis-Omnicom deal becomes eye-popping. Rothschild jumps to No. 6 from No. 10 on the European M.&A. league table, according to Thomson Reuters, while Moelis vaults all the way to 13th place from 68th.
Neither Rothschild nor Moelis offers the enormous lending capacity of a JPMorgan or a Citigroup. But with Publicis and Omnicom agreeing to a stock-for-stock deal, that kind of financial might isn’t really necessary. Moreover, such transactions play into what independent investment banks and boutiques say is their strength: providing independent advice and serving as trusted counselors, without trying to upsell clients on other services like lending or foreign exchange products.
Adding more advisers wouldn’t necessarily have made putting the deal together any easier. Some companies have resorted to using as few banks as possible, and hiring more only at the end, to avoid leaks. In this case, having only a pair of advisers seemed to work: word of the impending transaction emerged only on Friday when Bloomberg News reported the talks.
