Wall Street Payday: The banks on the massive AbbVie-Allergan deal stand to make $183 million

Reuters

Allergan CEO Brent Saunders

• AbbVie said on Tuesday that it's buying Botox-maker Allergan in a $63 billion deal.
• The deal could generate as much as $183 million in fees for the banks that worked on the deal, according to an estimate from Dealogic.
• That includes JPMorgan, which represented Allergan, Morgan Stanley, which was the lead adviser for AbbVie, and PJT Partners, a boutique investment bank that worked with AbbVie as well.
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AbbVie's proposed $63 billion takeover of Botox-maker Allergan could bring a big payday for the bankers involved in the megamerger.

The deal combines North Chicago-based AbbVie, which makes the world's best-selling drug Humira, with Dublin-based Allergan, which has been struggling in the face of competition for some of its biggest products including the wrinkle-smoothing treatment Botox.

Read more: AbbVie's $63 billion megadeal for Botox maker Allergan is the pharma industry's latest bet that bigger is better. But the deal is already facing big questions.

According to research provider Dealogic, AbbVie's lead adviser Morgan Stanley, could stand to make $71 million, while adviser PJT Partners could make $17.7 million in fees on the deal. JPMorgan, which advised Allergan, could take home $94.6 million. That's a total of $183 million, should the deal close.

It's a big win for PJT, which in November 2018 hired former star Goldman Sachs pharmaceutical analyst Jami Rubin. Rubin served as the lead banker for PJT, and this was her first deal at the bank.

Read more: A former star Goldman Sachs pharma analyst just made her first deal with AbbVie's $63 billion bid for Botox-maker Allergan. Meet the bankers involved in the megamerger.

Rubin has been an analyst since the early 1990s and has famously pressed major pharmaceutical companies on theirplans for mergers and acquisitions. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2008 after working at Morgan Stanley and became a partner in 2012.

PJT was founded after former Morgan Stanley banker Paul Taubman left the bank in 2012. In 2015, it merged with assets from Blackstone's financial- and strategic-advisory services, and now operates as a publicly traded company.

Dealogic estimates fees earned on deals using a model that takes into account the deal's size, the banks involved, and where the deal is happening. JPMorgan declined to comment on the fees. Morgan Stanley and PJT didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Read more:
• Allergan started out as a tiny but beloved Southern California eye care firm before expanding to a $130 billion company. Here's how the Botox-maker fell out grace with investors and then became a takeover target.
• Botox is made from the deadliest toxin on earth. Then we started injecting it in our faces.
• AbbVie said that its $63 billion deal for Allergan has at least $2 billion in 'synergies.' That should make employees nervous.
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