Top Rothschild banker Sam Prentice jumps ship to Jarden

Jarden has recruited Rothschild & Co managing director Sam Prentice. Picture: Supplied

One of Rothschild & Co’s top deal makers, Sam Prentice, is leaving to take on a senior managing director job at Jarden in what is the latest reshuffling of the ranks in Australian investment banking.

It comes after Jarden’s co-chief executive, Aidan Allen, was recently promoted to executive chairman at the Australia and New Zealand firm.

Jarden told staff the appointment aligns with its reset as a partnership model where senior managing directors receive a significant portion of deal earnings directly.

Mr Prentice has worked as an investment banker for more than three decades and has presided over some of the country’s most high profile transactions, particularly in the consumer and agriculture sector. As a Rothschild managing director, and he headed up Rothschild’s Melbourne office.

Among some of the most high profile transactions he has worked on across his client coverage in industrials, consumer, retail and healthcare have been Asahi’s acquisition of Carlton and United Breweries, Coca-Cola European Partners’ buyout of Coca-Cola Amatil and most recently the merger of Chemist Warehouse with Sigma Healthcare.

Mr Prentice will be based in Melbourne, working alongside Jarden’s senior bankers, including Adam Lennen, Stephen Pickles and Ian Arnold.

DataRoom reported last week that following Mr Allen’s promotion, Auckland-based fixed income specialist Daniel Reynolds would become the new co-chief executive of Jarden alongside Sarah Rennie.

Jarden has in recent years been working on mandates for a number of Australian listed companies, including Dyno Nobel, Origin Energy, Stockland, Woolworths, Spark, NZME, Fletcher Building, Auckland International Airport and New Hope, and it is also working with Fonterra, which was previously listed in Australia.

Investment bankers joined Jarden from UBS, including Mr Allen, in 2020, when the New Zealand group launched into the Australian market with top industry operatives.

Since broadening into the Australian market from New Zealand, Jarden has embarked on a partial selldown of its wealth management business to Pacific Equity Partners.

The deal was one that saw Jarden Wealth merge with the New Zealand operations of JBWere, with PEP emerging as a major shareholder. The entity was branded FirstCape.

Mr Prentice is leaving Rothschild after Citi’s head of investment banking for Australia, Alex Cartel, joined Rothschild’s Melbourne office.

Meanwhile, Rothschild’s healthcare and retail banker Marc Rubinstein, a managing director, moved to Luminis Partners last year.

Other industry changes include JPMorgan investment banker Cameron Nicholls leaving the Wall Street bank to join Nomura, while former Goldman Sachs banker Ian Taylor has recently joined Bank of America as its head of Equity Capital Markets for Australia and New Zealand and Goldman Sachs head of ECM, Aaron Lamshed, is now at Morgans after departing Goldman Sachs around Christmas.