Perella Weinberg Goes Public Amid Investment Banking Boom

(Bloomberg) -- The rumors about a Perella Weinberg Partners initial public offering began as early as the year it was founded.

Now, 15 years later, the boutique investment bank went public in a way that few would have imagined. After investors approved a deal for the investment bank to merge with a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by finance entrepreneur Betsy Cohen, Perella Weinberg started trading on Friday.

Perella Weinberg, founded by famed dealmakers Joe Perella and Peter Weinberg, listed its shares on the Nasdaq exchange during a dealmaking boom. At more than $1.8 trillion of announced mergers and acquisitions this year, the industry is on track to have its best volumes on record, according to data tracked by Bloomberg.

“We’re ready,” said Weinberg during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. “We’re structurally ready with respect to our firm. We’re ready, we believe, with our leadership and our people. And most importantly, we’re ready with respect to the growth opportunity that we really want to pursue and being public really helps us achieve that goal.”

Shares of Perella rose slightly to $13.06 at 10:35 a.m. in New York.

The investment bank swung to a profit in the first quarter of this year, with revenue climbing 84% in the heat of the deal frenzy. Perella Weinberg has received a stamp of approval from Wall Street analysts, with Devin Ryan of JMP Securities saying the firm is in a “hyper-growth” phase.

“Perella Weinberg is entering its next phase of scale and growth with significant runway ahead,” Ryan said on Monday in a note to clients. “Partner headcount is the biggest driver of revenue expansion,” and the company will likely grow faster than its peers, he said.

The firm has advised on deals this year including AT&T Inc.’s sale of media assets to Discovery Inc. -- the largest announced combination in 2021 -- and the purchase of Cloudera Inc. by a group of buyout firms.

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