In a blow to M&A bankers in Scotland, Cairn's big new M&A deal is being managed by a star M&A banker in London
When one of Scotland's big oil and gas companies goes shopping for big acquisitions, you might hope it would choose an Edinburgh-based M&A banker as its advisor.
Unfortunately not. In an apparent indication that there are no Edinburgh-based M&A specialists sufficiently senior to work on its £414m bid for Nautical Petroleum, Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy has contracted the services of James Smith, the London-based head of Rothschild's oil and gas team to lead the deal. Before working at Rothschild, Smith worked at Harrison Lovegrove, and oil and gas focused advisory boutique which was acquired by Standard Chartered in 2007. And before that, he worked for Merrill Lynch.
Whilst a shame for the Scottish M&A banker, Cairn's choice of James Smith at Rothschild is nothing new: he also advised on its disposal of Vedanta last year.
