The role of advisers in M&A deals has come under the spotlight recently with their willingness to work for competing clients and the small pool of advisers to choose from in the first place. Peter Shearlock investigates.
You cannot have too much of a good thing. Well, not when the good thing is investment banking advice that might otherwise be available to the opposition in a contested takeover. Mannesmann's legal challenge to Goldman Sach's role advising Vodafone Airtouch last month put the spotlight on two key aspects of today's M&A scene: the readiness of investment banks to act for competing clients and the increasingly restricted nature of the advisory pool itself.