David Tozer goes in shake-up at Houlihan Lokey

The Australian outpost of global boutique investment bank Houlihan Lokey appears to have undergone a shake-up, with its Sydney-based restructuring adviser David Tozer departing the firm.

Mr Tozer was hired along with Nick Rowe and Oscar Ludwigson to start the business in 2015 after all three previously worked together at ABN Amro, RBS and CIMB.

At the time of its move into Australia, Houlihan Lokey’s plan was to expand its footprint in the growing Asian region beyond Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan and India.

Mr Tozer has worked on the restructure of Atlas Iron, Emeco, Imdex, Onsite Rentals and Bis Industries in the two years he has been with the firm.

Both Atlas Iron and Emeco won awards for restructuring deals of the year from the Turnaround Management Association.

Mr Tozer is understood to be planning to start his own firm.

Houlihan’s entry in the Australian market was the first by a new player since the arrival of groups such as Moelis, Nomura, Greenhill and CIMB after the global financial crisis.

However, Luminis Partners also set up shop around the same time.

While the firm is well known for its restructuring expertise globally, it has been up against tough competition from other experts at rival boutique firms, including Moelis, Fort Street Advisers and Rothschild in the highly competitive Australian market.

Listed in New York, Houlihan Lokey reported a 26 per cent
lift in its revenue for the year ended March 31 to a record $US872 million ($1.1 billion), while net income increased 55 per cent to $US108m.

Houlihan Lokey said in its financial statement the lift in earnings came after a stable mergers and acquisitions environment, financing environment and evolving pockets of distressed situations.

The departure of Mr Tozer, one of Houlihah Lokey’s key players, comes as the Australian investment banking market is on track to record its slowest year since the peak of the global financial crisis, which remains a worry to the nation’s dealmakers.

The value of announced merger and acquisition activity in 2016 was $164bn through 93 deals — which was down slightly from $169bn a year earlier.

The first quarter of 2017 suggests that if the current trends hold, the value of announced M&A deals could be as low as $101bn.

As a result, some of the largest investment banks have been laying off staff.