M. Klein & Co advises Barrick Gold on merger

Gold
Bullion
AP

• Michael Klein’s boutique investment bank will split as
  much as $35 million in fees with Morgan Stanley for its role
  advising on a gold merger announced on Monday.
• Klein’s firm, M. Klein & Co, is secretive and only
  employs a handful of bankers. 
• 
  Klein is a former star banker from Citigroup
  who frequently advises governments and CEOs on complicated
  financial matters. 
  

  ---

A tiny and secretive boutique investment bank founded by star
dealmaker and former Citigroup executive Michael Klein will split
tens of millions of dollars in advisory fees
in an $18.3 billion gold merger announced on Monday. 

M. Klein & Co. will split as much as $35 million in fees with
Morgan Stanley for advising Barrick Gold Corporation on its
merger with UK-rival Randgold Resources Ltd., according to
estimates from consulting firm Freeman & Co. 

Randgold’s advisors, Barclays and CIBC, might earn as much as $45
million, Freeman said. 

This is not the first time
Klein’s firm has provided advice to the Canadian gold
miner. In 2015, M. Klein & Co. advised
Barrick on the sale of its 50% interest in a copper mine in
Chile.

Launched in 2012, Klein’s firm is regarded less of a traditional
boutique investment bank, and
more as an “embedded adviser” to CEOs, boards of directors,
institutional investors and governments.

But that’s not to say that Klein doesn’t advise big corporations
on M&A. The firm also advised Dow Chemical on its $130
billion megamerger with DuPont in 2015.

It also
reportedly worked with Saudi wealth fund Aramco on its global
strategy. 

But despite its status advising on high-profile matters, the New
York-based investment bank keeps a very low-profile. Its website
is barebones, aside from one contact number, with no marketing
material.

It’s unclear how many employees now work at M. Klein.
A previous report said that the firm investment
bank expanded to 20 employees in 2016 and had
established its presence in London and Beijing.

Klein
spent more than two decades at Citigroup, rising to the role
of CEO of global banking and then moving to Europe to take
responsibility for a build-out of the bank’s investment-banking
business in the region before leaving in 2008.

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