Hey everyone, was interested to see what people thought the future of Restructuring IB looks like in Europe (excluding UK) ? As many new large Rx transactions have and are continuing to take place, with US style solutions eg. large Coops etc.
Do boutiques plan on growing / expanding into Europe with more dedicated and local Rx teams ?
Any insights would be appreciated.
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Don’t think you’ll get full-fledged dedicated teams in every geography. Guys will have, if they don’t already, offices in key jurisdictions like Germany, France and maybe Spain, but my guess is most of the muscle will still be out of London.
This is partly a function of staffing (i.e. at the junior/mid level a lot of the work that needs to be done doesn’t require jurisdictional expertise), and partly a function of the client base that are typically US/UK based funds. There will still be Company side mandates, but the large mandates with significant capital structures are concentrated in UK/Germany/France with sprinkles of other countries, which then aligns with where the office openings are. Even for Company side mandates, you see senior folks who source in one jurisdiction and then pass it over to the UK execution teams. There is also a wider point of the restructuring tools becoming more homogenous across Europe from a financial modelling perspective (different from legal implementation point).
The caveats that I can think of are bank side mandates that the EBs don’t typically go after or smaller capital structure / jurisdictions where the economics don’t really work for the EBs either.
Yes, makes sense. But I imagine, as even smaller Boutiques are creating or growing their Debt Advisory teams across Europe, we would get some Restructuring representation as well, it being an extension of the Debt Advisory practice. I assume it would also make some sense to have a couple Seniors from top Rx boutiques like PJT on continental Europe to be the face of these transactions (I believe they are the latest to actively develop an Rx presence in Europe / Paris), but the muscle of these transactions, as you mentioned, would probably not need to be based outside of London either.
Bump, willing to know more
Fellow prospect but I think it’ll be based more on changes to the legal side? European law is quite homogenous (and likely to become more so with closer EU integration?) so operating out of a different country would make little difference.
Evolutions in law dictating X country involvement however might stimulate expansion (e.g. Gibbs rule for English-law governed debt).
Yes, on top of the legal framework, I think having larger companies in the respective country at risk of being distressed is a big factor, that way Banks can play off the relationships developed from the M&A / Broader IB teams' presence to pick up Rx transactions.
bump, hopefully without derailing to thread too much, does anyone have any suggested primers on UK/EU processes/trends/legal frameworks, much of what's available in the space is unsurprisingly US focused?
Would be very interested as well
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