Daiwa SMBC bullish on Close Brothers acquisition

While Nomura Holdings took the high-profile, high-risk decision to recruit 8,000 Lehman Brothers bankers in the fourth quarter of 2008, Daiwa Securities SMBC's strategy has been less high-profile and, arguably, less high-risk. Its acquisition of a small, specialist London-based mergers and acquisitions finance unit, Close Brothers Corporate Finance CBCF, is a more modest affair than buying a complete wholesale bank -- and should therefore allow it to avoid most of the post-merger integration issues that Nomura faces with Lehman. The consideration for the 230-person unit a subsidiary of London-listed Close Brothers Group was 75 million $120 million and involves a 100% ownership transfer. The deal was announced last Monday, but won't...