Rothschild Hires JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank Dealmakers in U.S. Push

(Bloomberg) -- Rothschild & Co. hired four senior investment bankers as managing directors for its U.S. operation, including Siddharth Hariharan from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to focus on consumer deals and Deutsche Bank AG veteran Timothy Hotchandani for health care.

Aashis Mehta, formerly of Lazard Ltd., was hired for health care and Reza Vahabzadeh of Perella Weinberg Partners for consumer deals, the Paris-based investment bank said Wednesday in a statement. Hariharan is based in Los Angeles, and the others in New York.

“Our intention is to essentially service the lion’s share of the U.S. market, just like we do in the rest of the world,” James Neissa, head of Rothschild’s North America business, said by phone. “The commitment to growing in the U.S. is real.”

Rothschild added almost a dozen senior bankers for North America in the past eighth months. Last year it brought on Neissa, a veteran of UBS Group AG, to oversee the operation, and his former colleague Lee LeBrun to lead mergers & acquisitions. The most recent hires add health-care capabilities to Rothschild in the U.S., while the consumer bankers build on an existing team, Neissa said.

“We’re quite focused” on health care, Neissa said. “We’re very competitive on the consumer side, the business is broad, a lot of complex-sized situations. Complexity sort of defines a lot of what we do.” The firm may seek to add bankers for financial-services deals, and will continue to build the health, technology and industrial businesses, he said.

Rothschild’s Deals

The global business, run by Chairman David de Rothschild and Deputy Chairman Alexandre de Rothschild, advises companies, governments and individuals. Rothschild worked on Groupe Arnault SE’s $13.2 billion deal to gain control of Christian Dior SE, and Bayer AG’s $66 billion bid to buy Monsanto Co.

Hariharan spent more than a decade at JPMorgan and has advised clients including Under Armour Inc., Clorox Co. and Nike Inc., according to the statement. Before Perella Weinberg, Vahabzadeh worked at firms including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Credit Suisse Group AG, and advised food, beverage, restaurant and personal-care clients including Hostess Brands Inc. and Pinnacle Foods Inc.

Hotchandani spent the last seven years at Deutsche Bank and advised on deals including the 2012 sale of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. for $2.4 billion, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s purchase of Life Technologies Corp., according to the statement.

Mehta worked at Credit Suisse and Citigroup Inc. before joining Lazard in 2011, and has advised clients including Celerion Holdings Inc., Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings and Copernicus Group.

--With assistance from Alex Sherman

To contact the reporter on this story: Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl