Mediobanca Inks a Deal to Acquire Arma Partners
Posted on 05/21/2023
Arma Partners is an independent financial advisory firm in Europe. Founded in 2003, Arma Partners is headquartered in London and has offices in Munich, a presence in the U.S. and affiliate relationships with specialist advisory firms in Japan, Australia, Israel, Turkey, and Brazil. Mediobanca has signed a strategic agreement with the partners of Arma Partners LLP and US Arma Partners LP. Arma is particularly active in the Software, Cloud Services, Data, Internet and Fintech segments. Arma Partners is led by its Founder and Managing Partner Paul-Noël Guély and has 12 partners and 86 employees. Paul-Noël Guély trained as an M&A banker with Morgan Grenfell & Co. (now Deutsche Bank) and then held senior positions, including Head of Software & Services and Head of European Technology Investment Banking, for Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.
In 2023, Arma Partners announced a third consecutive record financial year with revenues in excess of US$ 100 million.
Arma Partners will continue to be managed – as an independent company within Mediobanca Group – by Paul-Noël Guély who will work in close coordination with Francisco Bachiller and Giuseppe Baldelli, Co-Heads of Global CIB, to leverage Arma Partners’ Digital Economy capabilities across the whole Mediobanca CIB platform.
Mediobanca will pay the purchase price in cash of which 40% at closing in available funds, with the remainder released over 4 years based partly on Arma’s performance, and will have the option to pay the deferred component in Mediobanca shares. The agreement, subject to regulatory approval, will have an impact on Mediobanca’s CET1 ratio estimated at around 30bps on a 100% basis, should the deferred price be released in Mediobanca shares. On the basis of the last financial year earnings, the transaction is EPS accretive. The deal was disclosed on May 18, 2023.
In 2019, Mediobanca acquired French M&A boutique Messiér et Associes. In 2022, Mediobanca hired former Santander and Lloyds top executive António Horta-Osório as senior adviser.
