Ex-Goldman bankers launch Australia M&A boutique

MELBOURNE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Three former bankers at the Australian arm of Goldman Sachs formally launched a boutique advisory firm on Wednesday, looking to emulate the success of similar firms as Australia's economy picks up. The three former partners and managing directors at Goldman Sachs JBWere, Alastair Walton, Andrew Stuart and John Anderson, have been joined as partners in the new firm, BKK Partners, by politician and former Australian Treasurer Peter Costello. The fifth partner, Bernard Curran, is a former investment banker with Kleinwort Benson. BKK joins a number of boutique M&A advisers in Australia, such as Caliburn and Gresham Partners, which have snared market share from the major investment banks. In the first nine months of this year, Gresham was second in M&A advisory rankings behind Goldman Sachs, outperforming big names like Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS and Macquarie Group, according to Thomson Reuters data. BKK plans to focus on a limited number of large companies in sectors like banking. "We really want to target several key clients and work with them right through as their private advisers," Walton, who is the company's chairman, told Reuters. He declined to elaborate on who the firm was targeting. Its first big client was National Australia Bank, whom BKK advised on its $89 million purchase of an 80 percent stake in Goldman Sachs JBWere's private wealth management business in July. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Jonathan Standing) (([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail])) Keywords: AUSTRALIA BANKERS/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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