Rothschild & Co is scaling up its Canadian business, hiring veteran Royal Bank of Canada dealmaker Alex Graham to lead domestic expansion at a global investment bank with a two-century family pedigree.
On Monday, Paris-based Rothschild will announce that Mr. Graham will be its Toronto-based managing director and head of Canada, with a mandate to move beyond the bank’s current focus on advisory work for the mining industry and restructurings. For the past decade, Mr. Graham was head of RBC’s telecom, media and technology group in Canada, then Europe.
“Alex has strong professional roots in Canada and a global network of relationships,” Jimmy Neissa, head of Rothschild, North America, said in a release. “His experience, knowledge and leadership will serve our clients well and further grow our leading franchise in the region.”
Mr. Neissa joined Rothschild in 2016 with a mandate to build its North American operations after spending two decades as New York-based merger and acquisition (M&A) specialist at UBS and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where Mr. Graham also worked. Previously, Mr. Graham also led the diversified industries team for Morgan Stanley in Canada and worked for Citigroup in New York.
Last year, Rothschild ranked sixth among investment banks for M&A in Europe, advising on 464 transaction, and was 15th among North American banks on M&A, working on 220 deals, according to data service Refinitiv. Rival European banks with significant North American operations include Barclays, while Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS have scaled back in the region in recent years.
Rothschild is building out its Canadian team at a time when large Canadian companies and fund managers such as pension plans and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. are using international M&A to build their businesses. The investment bank currently has 10 professionals in Canada.
Rothschild plans to hire Canadian financiers with expertise in M&A for banks and financial services businesses, technology, infrastructure and power companies, and link these local bankers with its international expertise, Mr. Graham said.
“With Rothschild’s strong momentum in North America, along with its continued strength and deep bench of expertise in M&A advisory around the world, I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead and continue to grow the business in Canada,” he said in a release.
Prior to becoming an investment banker, Mr. Graham worked in Ottawa as an adviser to Prime Minister John Turner. He holds an MBA from Western University’s Richard Ivey School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Trinity College at the University of Toronto.
Rothschild has deep roots in Canada, serving as the financier that backed development of the massive Churchill Falls power project in Labrador in the 1960s. More recently, former securities lawyers Gar Emerson and Montreal-based investment banker Daniel Labrecque served as country head in Canada.
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