FINANCE: One of Europe’s star real estate investment bankers has quit Bank of America Merrill Lynch to start his own business.
David Church, BAML’s former managing director and head of real estate, gaming and lodging in EMEA, is understood to have resigned this week and is to set up a boutique merchant banking business called Leon Partners.
The business will offer advice on public and private mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, portfolio transactions and joint venture structuring.
Sources said Church would look to take advantage of activity driven by private equity firms selling out of their investments made during the downturn as a flood of institutional capital looks to take their place.
Leon Partners will open for business in the next few months and Church is expected to recruit a number of other high-profile advisers to his team.
Church, who joined BAML in 2006, has also worked for Deutsche Bank, Bankers Trust, UBS and Richard Ellis during his 30-year career.
He has advised on deals including Blackstone’s 50% acquisition and subsequent sale of Broadgate, EC2, for a total of £2.8bn; Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate’s £1bn IPO; the defence of Capital Shopping Centres from a takeover by Simon Property; the £700m sale of the Spire Hospital portfolio to EPF; and TPG’s €760m (£544m) acquisition of P3.
BAML has been one of the most active investment banks in the real estate advisory world in the past few years and is one of GE Capital’s advisory team on its purchase of $23bn (£15.5bn) of assets from Blackstone and Wells Fargo. Eastdil Secured is advising the buyers.
