Rising Stars of Investment Banking

It has been the year that investment banking activity finally rebounded, with total fees in 2014 set to be at their highest level since 2008.

Initial public offerings got off to a roaring start, although they slowed in the second half of the year, while the high-yield bond market has achieved a record for issuance. Large mergers and acquisitions were also back on the table for the first time in several years. Despite several multibillion deals falling by the wayside, M&A activity by deal value in Europe is set to end the year up by nearly 20%.

The FN 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Investment Banking, which is now in its fourth year, reflects this recovery in activity, with many of the individuals selected on the list involved in some of the year’s key transactions.

The list includes people who have worked on some of the biggest and most complex deals in the high-yield debt capital markets. It also includes individuals who are working in the hottest areas of 2014, including technology, media and telecommunications, healthcare and financial institutions.

Several of the M&A bankers were involved in some of the big cross-national deals, including the London Stock Exchange Group’s £1.6 billion takeover of Frank Russell and AstraZeneca’s defence against the £69 billion rebuffed bid from rival pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Each individual on the list shares one thing in common: the ability to adapt to different scenarios and serve their clients’ demands, whether it is travelling across the globe to do deals, working on four hours’ sleep or taking just five days’ holiday in the year.

Many are multilingual, helped by their international backgrounds, coming from Australia, Belgium, France, Lebanon, Malawi, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland and Zimbabwe – along with the UK and US.

Pieter-Jan Bouten, principal, Greenhill, Age 36 Belgium-born Bouten was advised by his father to take an international outlook when he was young. Armed with a law degree and speaking five languages, Bouten moved to London in 2001 to join Greenhill’s graduate programme. He has since been busy building influence, particularly in the technology, media and telecommunications sector, advising on numerous mergers and acquisitions for Greenhill. Recent deals include working closely with the firm’s New York-based Robert Smith and European co-head David Wyles advising the London Stock Exchange Group on its $2.7 billion acquisition of Frank Russell Company and $1 billion rights issue. In 2013, Bouten advised pharmaceutical company Actavis on its $5 billion acquisition of Warner Chilcott, in an early “tax inversion” deal involving a US company relocating as part of an acquisition to reduce its tax burden. Bouten is a keen kite surfer who enjoys adventure and risk sports. In 2003, he cycled unsupported up the highest road in the world in the Himalayas.