Altria M&A Credit: Here Comes Everyone
March 6, 2007, 4:58 pm
There appears to be more than a little bit of jockeying going on behind the scenes of Altria Group’s $61 billion spinoff of Kraft Foods.
When it was announced Jan. 31, only two banks were listed: Lehman Brothers Holdings and Centerview Partners, who advised Altria’s board and management. The next day, four other banks were given credit for advising Altria management: J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse Group, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. A full two weeks or more after that, Goldman Sachs Group showed up, as an adviser to Kraft, according to Thomson Financial.
People close to a few of the banks said their roles on the deal were legitimate, and someone familiar with Goldman’s role said the firm did work on the spinoff before it was announced. Altria and Kraft wouldn’t expand beyond the current listing of advisers on their Web site.
Regardless of whatever might be going on behind the scenes, one thing’s clear: there’s a lot of prestige at stake here for the banks because, for league-table purposes, this is the biggest deal so far this year (forget about the fact that it’s neither a merger nor an acquisition). But total fees at stake are actually quite paltry for a deal this size, at about $70 million, according to the Thomson Web site.
It’s probably just a matter of time before Morgan Stanley gets credit.
–Dana Cimilluca and Dennis Berman
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