Former UK Chancellor Osborne shares in Robey Warshaw $37 million pay day

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) -Boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw shared 30 million pounds ($37 million) of profit between its four partners in the year to March 2022, with former British finance minister George Osborne taking a slice of the lucrative pot for the first time.

Robey Warshaw's profit was flat on the prior year when the pandemic dealt a blow to dealmaking and was shared between the firm's partners in pay and profit share, according to company accounts reviewed by Reuters on Friday.

Robey Warshaw has established itself as a key adviser to FTSE 100 firms such as HSBC and Vodafone since it was founded in 2013 by dealmakers Simon Robey, Philip Apostolides and Simon Warshaw.

Osborne - who has held a variety of roles since leaving government including editor of newspaper the Evening Standard - joined as a fourth partner in April 2021.

The bumper payouts for the tiny advisory firm shows how some smaller so-called 'boutique' investment banks are thriving, although the accounting period runs up to before the market chaos sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Robey Warshaw ranks 12th in UK merger and acquisitions league tables in 2022, having advised on deals worth more than $26 billion, up from a 14th placement last year. The firm competes with rival boutiques like Evercore, which has consistently ranked higher over the past two years, according to Refinitiv data.

The company's highest-paid partner - widely reported to be former Morgan Stanley dealmaker Simon Robey - made 17.2 million pounds in the year to March 2022, compared with 20.1 million pounds previously.

The bank had just 13 employees, unchanged on the prior year, which were paid a total of 7.7 million pounds, down from 7.9 million.

Deals during the reporting period included advising insurer RSA on its 7.2 billion pound takeover by Canada's Intact and Denmark's Tryg.

More recent roles include advising HSBC in its defence against a break-up push by its biggest investor Chinese insurer Ping An and advising Vodafone on the planned 6 billion pound sale of part of its stake in Vantage Towers.

Robey Warshaw also represented an investment group led by American businessman Todd Boehly on the 4.25 billion pound takeover of Chelsea Football Club in May, with Chelsea fan Osborne playing a key role in winning the mandate, according to a source familiar with the matter.

($1 = 0.8218 pounds)

(Reporting by Iain Withers, Additional reporting by Lawrence White and Pamela Barbaglia, Editing by Louise Heavens)