UBS’s Aidan Allen linked to Jarden M&A role

Aidan Allen is the head of investment banking at UBS Australia. Picture: AFP

Key players heading for the door at investment banks has been a hot topic of late, and the latest name to surface in the discussion is Aidan Allen.

Mr Allen is currently the head of investment banking at UBS and the talk around the market is that New Zealand outfit Jarden could soon be making efforts to recruit the high-profile adviser as part of a major push into the local dealmaking scene.

However, Mr Allen told DataRoom he had not yet fielded any approaches.

In recent days Jarden has tapped some of the most successful operatives in the Australian investment banking market. This includes equities expert Robbie Vanderzeil, who left UBS this year, along with the Goldman Sachs head of equity capital markets for Australia and New Zealand Sarah Rennie, who worked at UBS before Goldman.

Also joining the Sydney base of Jarden is former UBS equities syndicator John Spencer and Dane Fitzgibbon, who was co-head of capital markets at UBS between 2004 and 2017.

Questions are being asked about the size of the cheque being written to secure such talent by the Kiwi firm, with some estimating it could be as much as $12m.

It has always been thought that after hiring some of the top equities specialists, building up an army of strong dealmakers would be its next major project.

Mr Allen was a long-time executive at UBS before he was poached by US bank Citi to lead its investment banking team. But he returned to UBS as head of investment banking in 2017.

He is especially known for his close relationships with successful private equity firms such as Pacific Equity Partners that are prolific in dealmaking.

Jarden has declined to comment on the talk.

Many say a move to Jarden could make sense for Mr Allen at the right price after he was overlooked for the top job at UBS last year. His co-head of investment banking, Anthony Sweetman, was named the co-head of the Swiss bank for Australia and New Zealand in conjunction with Nick Hughes. This followed the announcement of a retirement by long-time country head Matthew Grounds.

Mr Grounds is also said to be only weeks away from starting up another local investment banking outfit, thought to be with British bank Barclays and local high-profile fund manager Hamish Douglass, who is the chair and co-founder of funds management firm Magellan.

Some suspect the Australian head of distribution at UBS, George Kanaan, will join Mr Grounds once the firm is up and running, although he has not resigned from UBS.

Jarden opened an office in Australia, as revealed by DataRoom in October, and has been a Credit Suisse affiliate. It recently hired Credit Suisse equities executive Chris Jolj, which calls into question the level of reliance the firm will have on Credit Suisse in future.

It says on its website that it is a formal strategic alliance partner with Credit Suisse.

Jarden describes itself as a leading New Zealand investment and advisory firm.